Roommates
by demigodsforlife
Summary: Annabeth Chase wants to construct buildings. Percy Jackson wants to play with dolphins. Two totally different people stuck in the same room for the entire academic year. The results are-most likely-not going to be pretty. [College AU. All human.]
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hey all, I'm back with a new story (oh no not again!). But seriously I want to try to get to the end of this…even though I've said this a gazillion times on my other stories and never actually have done it. I think I have a good idea for this one, so bear with me. Hopefully we can get through this…**

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJatO. Rick Riordan does. **

**Roommates – 1**

Annabeth Chase is not the type of girl you'd expect to be standing at the doors of New University. Firstly, the name New is particularly pathetic considering that the university has been open and running for practically seventy years, which—though it wasn't even close to as old as Harvard—felt too old for the word 'new.' Annabeth Chase is not one to be pathetic. Secondly, New University wasn't even ranked in the top five universities; it was ranked a whopping seventh in the nation—definitely below Annabeth's standards. Lastly, it was a requirement for all alumni (limited to about only five thousand students) to 'bunk' with, or more precisely _share_ _a room _with a roommate of _either gender_. Not that Annabeth wasn't one to attract those of the opposite gender, she just didn't see the purpose of 'drooling' and wasting her time over boys like those hormonal teenage girls she had been surrounded with all her life always seemed to do.

Why did Annabeth feel the necessity to go to New University, then? Simply because it was the school her mother had went to. She just felt that maybe, by going to the same school, she would feel more connected to her than she was now. Maybe, just maybe, she could get closer to who her mother was and live up to her standard.

After all, Annabeth Chase's life was focused on making her mother proud. Ever since Athena Chase had divorced Fredrick Chase, Annabeth just couldn't seem to reach her mother. The only time her mother would ever notice her was when she won some academic award or got praise from her teachers, amazed at what an excellent student she was. Her father was always proud of her, no matter what she did. He always gave her attention when she wanted, but it was her mother who didn't have the time of day for her. So Annabeth always challenged herself to try to get her mother's attention. The good grades, the amazing academic and athletic record, the multiple science and math trophies sitting in her room at home—they were all for her mother's attention.

New University was just another tactic for Annabeth's never-ending challenge.

She adjusted her neatly pressed skirt and blouse, took a deep breath, and opened the entrance doors, dragging her luggage behind her. Most of her other belongings had already been placed in her room prior to her arrival. An older boy was manning the front desk, absently twirling a white lanyard in circles. When he spotted Annabeth he slipped the lanyard in his back pocket and fixed his stance, standing straighter and taller.

"Hey, I'm Luke Castellan, junior, how may I help you?" He let his blue eyes fall on her grey ones, smirking somewhat mischievously. She took in his height and the scar above his eyebrow, as well as the slight upward lilt of his mouth. He cleared his throat, snapping her out of the trance she was in.

Annabeth felt her heart start to race, not sure if it was because of him, or her being nervous. "Oh, sorry, I was wondering what my room number was?" she sounded more breathless than she intended.

Luke smirked again, this time more knowingly. "Are you a freshman?"

"Yes, so what?" she replied hastily and somewhat gruffly. She really just wanted to get to her room and prepare for all of her classes and such. She didn't have time to chat with this agonizingly slow, yet attractive stranger.

"Oh, nothing. Name please?" he asked professionally.

"Annabeth Chase," she responded quickly.

Luke skimmed down a list, eventually locating her name and room number. "Ah, Annabeth Chase, room 555 on level 5. That's not a hard one to remember," he said as he continued to smirk (seriously, how can someone smirk _that much_?). He turned behind him to and searched through some drawers until he pulled out a pair of keys. She took them.

"One's for you and the other for your roommate. Just give it to them when they arrive," Luke explained.

"Okay, thanks for your help."

"Yeah, no problem. Pleasure meeting you, Annabeth," he said, _still _smirking.

"Same," she said, before leaving to find the elevator.

She found one not far away, opening as another girl was getting in. She looked to be a little older than her, and had that punk-rock girl thing going on with all the leather and multiple ear piercings. They both got in the elevator, Annabeth awkwardly with her luggage in tow. The girl hit button number five, then looked to Annabeth, who just smiled and said, "Me too."

"What room?" the girl asked.

"555, you?"

"556. That's crazy. I'm Thalia by the way." Thalia stuck out her hand.

"Annabeth."

"Cool. You know who your roommate is yet?"

"Not a clue."

The elevator dinged and the door opened, revealing level 5. They walked together to their rooms down the vacant aisles. Right before Thalia left to her room she laughed and said, "Just hope you don't get someone sucky, or freshman year is going to be horrible for you."

Annabeth took that into account. "I'll hope." Then they parted ways as unlikely friends. Annabeth felt she was off to a pretty good start.

She stepped into the room, which for the most part was huge. It was like a miniature house stuffed into a room. There was a tiny kitchen connected to a living room, a bathroom, a laundry room, and a bedroom with a bunk-bed and a desk. The room was painted a beautiful ocean blue. Annabeth started to get why the fees for staying at this school surpassed those of Harvard's. She began to organize her stuff, placing her clothes and supplies in drawers and making the bottom bed with her favorite comforter covered in silver owls.

After she finished settling in, there was a loud knock at the door. "Hello? Can somebody open this door?" said a voice.

"I'll be right there!" She called back. She walked up to the door, opening it slowly.

In front of her stood a boy looking to be about her age, with raven black hair and the greenest eyes she had ever seen. He holds a bag above his head and another in his arms, looking slightly off balance. He smiles and says, "Hey." But that's about all she gets to see.

Because next thing she knows the bag over his head comes slipping down from his hands and crashes with a _thunk!_ on her head.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hey guys! Back with the next chapter. Hope you enjoy! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJatO. Rick Riordan does.**

**Roommates – 2**

You can probably imagine the horror Percy Jackson felt when he managed to knock his roommate—for the rest of the academic year—out cold in a matter of five seconds. He was pretty sure he was the only person who could manage to achieve such a thing (involuntarily of course!). This was just his dumb luck. He hoped that this girl would forgive him, or his whole freshman year at New University would be hell for sure.

After moping over his uncontrollable clumsiness, he dropped his bags off in the bedroom, taking in how organized it was.

Scratch that, his year was _already_ going to be hell.

He could just tell that this was one of those academic-based students, the ones who did nothing but study, study, and study more. This girl was definitely that type, he could just feel it emanating from the way the room was set. His mind was already going to explode from the idea of it. What if she was one of those girls who actually made her bed, did her laundry, or worst of all _the dishes_? What if she made _him _do the dishes?

As these traumatic thoughts rushed through Percy's head, the girl on the floor groaned. _Oh right. He probably should do something about that. _

He picked her up with ease (she was fairly light) and placed her on the bed covered in owl print. He bet the owl print was some type of superstition that gave the girl her smart powers and stuff. The _horror. _

It was now, approximately five minutes later, that he actually got to look at his roommate. She was an average height, with that California-esque look. Her skin was a nice shade of tan and—from what he observed when he picked her up—smooth. Her hair fell perfectly in princess curls and went past her shoulders. In conclusion, she was _very _pretty. Percy ran his hand over his mouth casually, just to make sure he wasn't drooling.

So _of course_, Percy's roommate had to be a very pretty and organized girl who was extremely smart (from the looks of it). And as Percy's first impression, he had dropped a very large—and albeit, heavy—bag onto her head. _Just great. _He really hoped she wouldn't hate him for the rest of the year, 'cause that would kind of suck. A lot.

From the looks of it, though, she would probably hate him anyway because there was no way they could be more different. How did they _decide _this roommate system anyways?! At this point, Percy was seriously thinking about getting a room change. There was no way he was going to survive his first year of university with a, with a…smart person! It practically spelled disaster.

As Percy continued to fret over the horribleness that which is his life, he heard a loud knock at the door. Quickly, he glanced at the unconscious girl lying on her bed, just to make sure this wasn't just some stupid prank that he had fallen for. He seriously was hoping the girl would jump up, laugh, and say, "happy first day of being roommates, HAHAHA!" even though he was pretty sure that roommates didn't do that type of thing. At this point, he hoped for anything.

Of course, after a few seconds, nothing happened, and the girl still remained on her bed. Percy gave up and decided to answer the knocking at the door, making sure he wasn't carrying anything heavy that he could possibly drop on one of the other students attending NU.

He opened the door and was met face to face with a red Rasta cap. Literally. He looked down to see his best friend since the sixth grade, Grover Underwood, chewing a plastic fork. Grover had this weird tendency to chew random trash that you usually saw goats eating. It didn't really bother Percy unless it happened to choke Grover and then Percy would have to do the Heimlich on him. Thankfully that had only happened once.

"Hey G-man! Sups?" Percy asked.

"I was waiting for my roommate to show up, but it's been like two hours and they still haven't shown up. What if I get someone terrible?! Like Clarisse?!" He shuddered at the thought.

Clarisse was a bully that had been bothering Percy and Grover for years on end. Mainly because once they had drenched her with toilet water (long story short, it was an accident!) and she was the laughingstock for approximately a week. Whatever they did, they just couldn't avoid her. Somehow she was always where they were, beating the crap out of them whenever she got the chance. Rumor was she got accepted into NU, and Grover and I have been on her toes ever since.

"Don't worry dude, there is only a little chance that you'll get Clarisse as a roommate. I wouldn't worry about it too much," I said in attempt to be reassuring, but by the look on Grover's face, I could tell I wasn't doing a very good job.

He nodded half-heartedly. "Speaking of roommates, who is yours?" He peered through the opening of the door in an attempt to see.

Percy blocked the view. He didn't want Grover to know that he had knocked out his roommate. That would just add to the embarrassment of the whole thing. Instead he replied, "She's kind of asleep. I don't think we should bother her…"

Grover agreed and we decided to just chill and hang out around the building. School technically didn't start until Monday, which was two days away.

Annabeth woke up in her bed with a slight throbbing on the upper left part of her head. She couldn't quite remember when she had gotten into bed. She groaned and sat up, then went to the bathroom to wash her face.

In the bathroom, she took a handful of water and rubbed it over her face. When she rubbed it over the top part of her face, she felt a bump. What? When had she gotten a bump? Startled, she looked in the mirror.

Only to find a huge, disgustingly purple bump on the left side of her forehead.

She screamed.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: It's been a while…oops. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJatO. Rick Riordan does.**

**Roommates – 3 **

Annabeth had felt she was prepared for her year at the NU the moment she had stepped into the building's prestigious walls. She had felt she prepared before she even boarded the plane to get there. She'd felt prepared ever since she was born to get to the NU. But now—now!—she had this horrible bruise on the upper part of her head, for all to see, and she felt nothing but unprepared. She felt lost, disgruntled, horrified, and stunned.

It's not that Annabeth cared a whole ton about her appearance, the most makeup she had was a bit of lip gloss here and some mascara there. She wasn't the frilly, flowery girl most blondes were stereotyped to be. There was one thing Annabeth did care a large sum for: her pride. This included what others thought of her and how they viewed her. Having a disgusting bulge of damaged skin on your head is not the best first impression. It says clumsy, tragic, and unorganized. Everything Annabeth didn't want to be.

What did she do to deserve this?

She stomped angrily and threw herself onto her bed, stuffing a pillow into her face as she screamed in frustration.

Just imagining the thought of her first day of school caused shivers to head down her spine. In two days, she would have to walk the halls, with…with _that_ on her forehead. She'd be teased and taunted. People would call her 'humpty-bumpty' or 'egghead.' Teachers would take her as pathetic and inept. Her whole year at NU was officially ruined.

When she finally started to calm down and think logically, she began to ponder how in the world this bump had appeared on her head. She knew it couldn't be a bug bite; it was too big for that. There was a slight flash of memory of something heavy being dropped onto her head, but she couldn't quite remember how that happened.

The door creaked open slightly, and a boy with ravenous black hair stepped in. She felt she recognized this person from somewhere, but still couldn't quite put her finger on it.

Their eyes locked—her steely grey ones on his ocean green ones. An awkward silence ensued, with them just awkwardly staring at each other.

Annabeth took this time to size him up. He was on the lean side, with pointed and small features. His hair was unkempt, and his shirt wrinkled. Obviously he was the careless and laid-back type. She guessed he could be cute, but he was definitely not her type.

"What happened to your head?" he asked inquisitively. His face contorted into one of confusion and slight disgust.

Suddenly, it all came back to Annabeth. He was the one who she had opened the door for! He had dropped a heavy bag on her head. _He _was the cause for her suffering. And now, _he _was asking her what had happened to her head. As if he didn't know!

She immediately became furious. If she were a cartoon character, her eyes would have boggled out of her head and steam would have spurted out of her ears. How dare he mock her in such a way? How insensitive could a person be?!

"Are you seriously kidding me?" she asked calmly (or, as calmly as she could). Inside, she was bubbling similar to the way a volcano does before it explodes and all that molten lava sprays out. She hoped somehow her imaginary lava could burn the skin off of this evil boy who had irritated her.

He looked at her like he was a deer wearing headlights or something—whatever that phrase was, Annabeth couldn't remember with all her fury. "What did _I _do?" he said, as if he didn't know.

Annabeth is not one to be messed with. So naturally, since this boy provoked her, she burst on him. "What do you mean?! You dropped your stupid heavy bag on my head, and now you're asking me what you did? You think you can just mess with me and laugh at my stupidity or something? Do you have a nice bone in your body? You're freaking cruel!"

She punched him in the stomach and flipped him onto the ground.

He was caught off guard but responded. "I didn't see any bump after you fell down…"

"Oh my gods! Do you not know that bruises swell if not treated?!" she face palmed at this boy's stupidity.

He blinked. "Oh. Uh…"

"You know what, never mind. Forget it. Just get out and send for my roommate. You brought their bags up right?"

"Oh yeah, your roommate. Well you see-"

"I hope that my roommate isn't as stupid as you. Ugh. Hopefully they actually have some sense and know some first aid."

"Uhm, well…" he said, feeling a bit hurt by her words.

"Do you understand English?! My roommate should be here by now, can you please call them up?" She looked him the eyes, her grey orbs all stormy and scary.

"Actually…uhm. I'm your roommate," he said somewhat ashamedly.

The girl stared at him in shock for a few moments. "No. No no no no no no! _You _cannot be my roommate. There has to be some mistake! There is no way this is going to work!" she said in despair.

"Look, I'm sorry for everything. I didn't know…I mean, I didn't…ugh, I'm just so clumsy and-" Annabeth interrupted him.

"Just leave me alone. Please."

He nodded sorrowfully and left the room, closing it shut softly behind him.

Seconds later, someone knocked loudly on the door. Annabeth reluctantly went to get the door, still calming down from her explosion.

She opened the door to find Thalia, the girl she had met earlier.

"Hey, I heard some screaming from your room. You okay?" she asked in a concerned tone. She looked at Annabeth and then coughed in surprise. "Uh, forget I even asked. Let's get some ice for that."

The two girls got some ice as Annabeth explained what had happened to Thalia. Thalia, for the most part, was comforting, but sometimes she would laugh at the stupidity of the whole catastrophe. As Annabeth relayed the story, she started to realize that maybe she had overreacted. That didn't stop her from being mad at her roommate (who she still didn't know the name of).

After cleaning up the bruise, Thalia asked Annabeth about the infamous roommate. As Annabeth explained and described in detail, a look of recognition appeared on Thalia's face.

"That sounds a lot like my cousin, Percy Jackson. Green eyes and unruly black hair, you say?"

Annabeth nodded assuredly. "That's the one." She sniffed in exasperation. "Why is he so ignorant? Ugh."

Thalia smirked. "He's kind of on the clutzy side, but he really is a good kid. He has a kind of tendency of doing these types of things. He really isn't _that _bad."

Annabeth just rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't be so sure about that."

Thalia just laughed. "We'll see. You _do _have to spend a whole school year with him, so you'll be getting to know a lot about each other."

Annabeth sighed in despair. "Don't remind me."

After they talked for a little while more, Thalia left Annabeth alone to go to bed. Time had passed so quickly because of the whole fiasco. Annabeth returned to her usual routine. She changed into her owl pajamas and brushed her teeth and hair, before picking up a book to read.

As her eyes began to start drooping, someone knocked on the door. Annabeth groaned and opened the door.

In front of her stood the little jerk himself. Percy Jackson.

"I'm really sorry about what happened and-"

"Save it. I'm going to bed and here are your keys for the room, so you don't have to knock and bother me anymore. Goodnight." With that, Annabeth left to go sleep on her bed, turning her face to the wall so she wouldn't have to talk or see the stupid nuisance.

Percy felt really bad, but didn't know what to do. It's not like he could make the bump disappear or something. He'd tried apologizing but this girl just wouldn't let him.

He unpacked his bags, munching on the blue cookies his mom had baked him before he left. While he was doing so, he continued to ponder what he could do to make it up to his roommate. Nothing came to him. Eventually he finished unpacking and sat on the couch to watch tv. Spongebob was on. He felt his eyes drooping, and finally drifted off into a sleep filled with nightmares of murderous owls with steely gray eyes.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: It's been a while (again)… (Oops I did it again…I played with your heart…so on so forth). Feel free to yell at me. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJatO. Good old Ricky does. ;)**

**Roommates - 4**

Percy awoke to the atrocious sound of an alarm clock. He reached around to see if he could locate the 'snooze' button, like he always did at home. Unfortunately, he was not at home, but rather in a dorm room sleeping on the top bunk of a bunk bed. His body rammed into the pointy wooden railing as he mentally applauded himself for his stupidity.

Thanks to the bruise that he could feel was already forming, Percy felt awake. The alarm had finally shut up from its incessant _beep beep _noise. This time, more carefully, Percy leaned over the railing of his bed to find the clock saying it was only 6:30 am. Who the hell wakes up at 6:30 _am_?

As if to answer his brilliant question, the bathroom door opened to reveal the blonde girl from the day before. She was sporting a cream pencil skirt and bold white blouse, similar to what she was wearing the day before. Her blonde hair cascaded down her shoulders in princess curls, which, in Percy's point of view, were kind of overrated anyway. He randomly started thinking of how curls bounce when you tug them.

The aforementioned girl looked up at him, her bruise less evident then it was before. Her grey eyes watched him in pure annoyance. "Do you have any plans of even getting up?" she asked in an omg-you-are-so-stupid tone, which—sadly—was a tone Percy was used to.

Percy was really irked by this. It's not like he purposefully dropped that heavy bag on her head. (Although, now thinking on it, he would do it again if it meant she would stop bullying him.) He wasn't the type of guy running around finding ways to ruin other peoples' lives. Why couldn't she just accept his apology and move on? She stared at him like he was intentionally placed on the planet just to ruin her life.

"Actually, I was planning to sleep in like _normal_ people do when they don't have school. I like to relax on my off-days. But I bet the word _relax _isn't even in your dictionary. You're always so uptight and mad at everything. Sheesh," Percy responded thoughtfully. He attempted to sit up. Unfortunately, he was too tall for the ceiling and bumped his head with a loud _thunk_. Percy cursed at himself. Why did he seem to be extra clumsy whenever she was around? That wasn't exactly _helping_ his situation.

She scoffed at his inelegance as he rubbed his head. "I do _too_ know how to relax. I just want to be prepared for everything tomorrow when school starts. I'm going to go check out this place so that _I _won't get lost on the first day of school." and with that, she left the room (a bit too dramatically, for Percy's taste).

Percy looked at the door blankly. _That girl. _She needed to be taught a lesson. She was going to get nowhere with her attitude.

Line Break

Annabeth walked around the building, not actually paying attention to where she was going. She couldn't believe she had been paired with such a dimwit. Of all the people, it just had to be someone who didn't have any common sense. Every minute she spent in the room with Percy Jackson felt a minute too long. There was so much irritation whenever she was near him that she could practically cut through it with a knife.

She didn't really understand why she was so mad at him. The bump on her head had magically started to disappear this morning—it wasn't even that noticeable. Perhaps being around him had caused her to lose brain cells. This would explain some things. If Athena had seen how Annabeth had reacted to the bump on her head, she would have told her to stop throwing tantrums like a two year old. But Percy, he just, he made her so angry for no particular reason. Maybe they were just meant to be enemies.

Annabeth continued to pace confusedly through the mostly vacant halls of the NU. She concluded to herself that she just had the worst luck.

"Hey!" a voice called out.

She turned around to find the same junior boy, Luke, who had helped her yesterday. In an attempt to seem affable, she smiled. He smirked back. His constant smirk was almost endearing.

"What are you doing up so early?" he asked out of curiosity.

"I could ask you the same," Annabeth said in a joking manner.

"No really." He raised his eyebrows, only making the scar above his right eyebrow more visible.

"Okay, fine. I was just scouting out the place, trying to figure out where everything was before tomorrow," Annabeth explained.

Luke chuckled. "It seemed more like deep, thorough sulking to me."

"Well…" Annabeth hesitated on sharing her drama with this junior she barely even knew. She didn't want to be seen as the overly theatrical type. Instead she changed the subject and asked, "Are you allowed to change rooms?"

Luke glanced at her in slight puzzlement. "You can…if there are any rooms left open."

"Really?! I mean, could I?" Maybe Annabeth could get a better roommate. The thought itself was relieving.

He nodded. "Let's go see if there are any rooms available."

They walked over to the front desk. Luke flipped through a book, trailing his finger down room numbers. He frowned a little. "Hmmm…sorry, but it looks like all the rooms have been taken," he looked up at Annabeth, "is there some reason for wanting to change rooms?"

Annabeth shook her head. "No, it's just that…my roommate, well, he's just…actually never mind. I can deal with him." It would sound kind of lame to switch rooms simply because her roommate was a total klutz and possibly had the IQ of a 5 year old.

Luke shrugged. "Okay. Well…" They both stood there in silence. "Have you tried the frozen yogurt at the café? It's really good." He checked his phone, texting someone. "My friend and I were going to go get some, wanna join?"

Annabeth nodded. "Sure, sounds fun." She smiled as she thought to herself _see Percy Jackson, I _can _relax._ _I'm not super uptight all the time. _

Luke wrapped his fingers around her arm. "Come on, I'm already late!" She laughed at his eagerness and allowed herself to get dragged to the café. Luke seemed to be nice, and Annabeth was going to need some friends to survive this year.

Line Break

Percy Jackson was sprawled out on Grover's red sofa that had definitely seen better days, drinking blue cola. Grover was talking about something, but there was a mysterious green stain near where Percy's head was, so he was having trouble paying attention. What stains green anyway? Guacamole? Green peas? Or maybe…

"Percy, did you hear me?" Grover interrupted.

"Huh, what?" he responded intelligently.

"Man, Percy, you suck at listening. I was asking you about your roommate."

Percy groaned. "Ugh, it's horrible. So I accidently dropped one of my bags on her head and she got super pissed about it. She won't even let me apologize and every time she talks to me it's like she's talking to the dumbest person in the world."

"But what if she is?" Percy threw Grover a glare. "Percy, I'm just kidding," Grover laughed. "You done with that?" he asked, gesturing at Percy's cola can. Percy tossed it to him. Grover started to chew it thoughtfully.

Percy couldn't help but laugh, "So does your roommate know about your weird goat habits?"

Grover nodded. "Katie's pretty cool about it all. She's into botany and stuff and said that as long as I don't, like, eat her plants, I'm fine. She went down to the gardens or something."

Percy sighed. "I wish my roommate was as chill as yours."

Grover continued to chew his can, "Come on, she can't be _that _bad. What's her name?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know her name?"

"Uh…no?"

"Sometimes I worry about you Percy." Grover shook his head.

"Meh. You want to go get something to eat? I'm starving," Percy suggested, changing the subject. He didn't really enjoy when Grover decided to be his mom. Sometimes that just got weird.

"Yeah su-" Grover started before he was interrupted by Percy's cell phone buzzing.

Percy looked at the caller ID and cursed. "Shoot Grover, we need to go the café now. She's going to beat us... and that means…"

Grover's face paled. "No!" as he spit out the chewed-up can into the nearest wastebasket. They both flew out the door as quickly as they could.

Line Break

Thalia Grace sat at a table off in the corner, smiling to herself. To any bystander, she looked like the average punk-rock chic sporting blue plaid that made her eyes striking like lightning. She was eccentric, and she caught many curious stares with her seemingly devious smirk as she swirled her frozen yogurt in slow circles. But she only paid attention to the increasingly louder sound of running feet approaching in her direction. If possible, her smile got even wider as her eyes caught sight of two boys sprinting towards her as if they were being chased by a bear.

When they spotted her sitting leisurely at the table, both boys groaned in defeat. She casually checked the time on her phone before acknowledging them, "Percy, Grover, late again."

"Don't rub it in," Percy remarked, still panting from sprinting all the way to the café.

She simply held out her hand, "3 dollars and twenty seven cents. Pay up."

Percy and Grover dug through their pockets, eventually finding enough money and handing it to her in shame. She smirked, "You guys were the ones who made this bet like five years ago, and now you're blaming me?"

"What bet?" A new voice behind them asked. They turned to find Luke. He smirked mischievously and there was laughter clear in his eyes.

Thalia's eyes brightened. "Luke." She gestured at Percy and Grover. "This is my cousin, Percy, and my friend, Grover. We went to high school together." Then she pointed at Luke. "Guys, this is Luke, we met when I was a freshman here, and we've been friends ever since. I figured we could all have fro-yo today and get to know each other better, that's why I asked you all to come."

They greeted each other before Luke asked again, "So what bet were you guys talking about?"

Grover huffed. "We used to race Thalia to lunch in high school. So we made this bet that whoever gets there first gets their lunch paid for by the losers."

Thalia laughed. "I win practically every time," she waved her winnings in her hand victoriously. Then she looked at Luke in confusion. "I thought you texted me that you were bringing someone along."

Luke nodded. "Yeah, she needed to go get something from her room. She'll be here in a few minutes and she told me that she was fine with us getting fro-yo without her since she'll be a little late."

Line Break

Percy magically had reached the fro-yo line, tapping his fingers impatiently against the counter-top in order to get his blueberry flavored fro-yo. The lady who was pouring it into his cup was taking an excessive amount of time, making it into the most perfect swirl she could master. Percy just wanted his frozen yogurt, and grinned widely when he finally got it. He began to purposefully walk towards the table, holding his fro-yo close to him protectively.

Line Break

Annabeth rushed out of the elevator and into the café, trying to spot Luke's familiar blonde hair. When she spotted it, she breathed a sigh of relief and started to head over to the table. Just as she was about five feet away from the table, she collided into a tall figure, knocking her off balance.

She felt herself slipping backwards as a strong arm came around her waist and caught her. She locked her eyes onto her savior (though, really, she was _not_ a damsel in distress…it was just bad timing). When she saw those startling green eyes lock onto her grey ones, she gasped in surprise.

_Seriously?_ She thought. She then shoved Percy Jackson away from her in pure annoyance, not seeing the cup of bright blue frozen yogurt in his free hand.

And because, as Annabeth knew so well, the momentum of her shove caused the cup of intensely blue frozen yogurt to fly out of his hands and onto her bold, bright, _white _blouse.

She looked at Percy, seething with fury.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Oh my gosh, you guys! I am such a sucky updater and author and you guys are so awesome I feel horrible. You do not know how much it means to me when I see all your favorites, follows, and reviews. It makes me super happy! Thank you so much. **** ju make me so happysss…I'll stop rambling now. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or his friends. I wish, though. But darn old Ricky already does. :'(**

**Roommates – 5 **

It was official, Percy concluded. He was _dead._ If looks could kill, his roommate's eyes would have brutally mutilated his body, covered it in blue frozen yogurt, and buried it deep within the depths of the Underworld. Percy tried not to shake with fear and somehow managed not to look away from her murderous glare as the entire cafeteria erupted with laughter.

Percy really didn't want to die. He had so much he wanted to do, so many undersea creatures he wished to see, so many Maseratis he dreamed of driving. But that was never going to happen if _she_ killed him in the cafeteria of New University, which he seriously didn't doubt by the scowl imprinted on her face. He could imagine the headlines now, _Percy Jackson Murdered by Angry Blonde at New University_. His mom would be really sad. But hey, maybe then she would be put behind bars? That would mean no one else had to face her wrath! Although, he didn't really want to his sacrifice himself just to get her into prison…

Everyone else in the cafeteria began to resume whatever they had been previously doing, as they realized the situation wasn't even that funny. Plus, they had expected some sort of yelling and dramatic flailing of arms, which didn't seem to be happening. Not enough drama to be interesting.

"Seriously, _Percy_?" she came closer to him, whispering angrily. "First you damage my head, and now you've ruined my shirt, not to mention the fact that you've just humiliated me in front of at least a fifth of the school. What is your problem?"

Her proximity to Percy was doing weird things to his stomach. He could smell her shampoo (lemon-scented) and couldn't help but notice the way her eyes seemed to glow (trying to ignore the fact that they were glowing in fury). All he could think to say was, "How do you know my name?"

She rolled her eyes at him, confirming to herself that she had never met anyone so dumb in her entire life. Even her twin-stepbrothers were smarter than him, she bet. "You're not even going to apologize?"

He huffed in exasperation. "That's the thing, you wouldn't accept my apology anyways. Plus, it wasn't even my fault."

Okay, fine. So he was right about that. But Annabeth wasn't going to let him go that easily. "How is _not_ your fault?" If there was one thing that was obvious to her, it was that she was the victim in this predicament.

"Uhm, I'm pretty sure you're the one who shoved me, which caused me to dump the frozen yogurt all over your shirt," he explained, slightly miffed. "I was just trying to stop you from falling over."

Oops. Annabeth had kind of forgotten about her shove. Still, to her, Percy was the reason for all of this.

"Well if you had just been watching where you were going…" she started.

"Look, I'm really sorry, okay? Why can't you just accept that? Here, I'll even help you clean up your shirt," he began to suggest, before realizing that, _of course, _it was her chest that was covered in blue fro-yo.

She spoke in disgust, "Yeah, obviously, you'd want to clean my _shirt_." She glared at him once more, before strutting out of the cafeteria in irritation, probably to go change.

Percy mentally face-palmed. Why was he always such a clutz around her? He moped and even getting a new, free cup of blueberry frozen yogurt didn't cheer up his mood. As he returned back to the table, he realized that Thalia was gone.

Luke and Grover were both holding in laughter as Percy approached. When he finally sat down, they burst into uncontrollable laughter, unable to help themselves. Percy just bent his head over his cup of fro-yo in shame.

"Dude, talk about horrible first impressions," Luke said, smirking. "Now Annabeth's going to hate you, possibly for the rest of time."

"She already does," Percy offered, feeling a bit better now that he _finally_ knew her name. He would have to thank Luke later.

"What? Why?" Luke asked in curiosity.

Percy nodded at Grover, "That girl I just got fro-yo all over, that's my roommate."

Grover started to laugh again. Luke gave the two a confused look as Grover started to explain, "Percy dropped one of his heavier bags on her head the first day he met her, and she got this huge bump…it was bad, apparently." Luke tried to hold back a smile, but failed.

"It was an accident, I swear. And you can barely even see the bump anymore!" Percy defended.

"Just face it, Percy, you have the worst luck," Grover said wisely, not before chuckling a little.

Percy put his head in his hands, mumbling a pitiful "why me?" to himself. Then, in an attempt to change the subject he asked, "Hey, where did Thalia go by the way?"

Luke smirked again. "She went to go help Annabeth clean up the mess you made."

Percy groaned. "Great."

Line Break

Annabeth Chase dug through her clothes fervently before picking out some ripped jeans and a grey sweater. No one else seemed to be sporting pencil skirts and blouses around the school anyway. It was her mother who had told her to pack those, simply because she believed in propriety, no matter the situation. Sometimes it really annoyed Annabeth, because her mother and her would be the only ones dressed super-formally at some sort of company picnic, where everyone else sported jeans and shirts.

She tied her hair up in a messy bun and threw on her favorite owl necklace in an attempt to try to make herself feel better. Her pride had been hurt more than she liked because of Percy-her-clumsy-roommate and all she really wanted to do now was escape into one of her favorite architecture books she had brought along with her to college.

Thalia walked out of her bathroom, holding her white – now wet – shirt, which still had a massive blue stain on it. "They put some kind of dye in that fro-yo, and it's like impossible to get out," she stated in defeat. "You could bleach it maybe?"

Annabeth shook her head. "It's not a big deal, I'll just toss it. It's just going to keep reminding me of your idiot cousin anyways."

Thalia laughed, "On behalf of my idiot cousin, I apologize for the loss of your shirt." Her electric blue eyes shone with laughter, "He's always been a bit on the clumsy side."

"A bit?" Annabeth retorted, but not before smiling. Now that she thought back on it, the whole situation was kind of funny…in a really pathetic way. Percy always managed to accidently humiliate her, and she always managed to overreact about it. That didn't mean she was going to forgive him, at least, not any time soon.

"Try not to be too hard on him though, because I promise you, Percy truly is a good person. I highly doubt he would do any of this on purpose," Thalia said lightly.

Annabeth doubted she would ever go easy on him, but she nodded slowly for Thalia's sake. "I'll try, but no promises."

They both smiled and then Thalia's phone buzzed and she pulled it out, checking her texts. "It's Luke. He wants to eat dinner together later at that Olive Garden nearby. You want to come?"

Annabeth nodded enthusiastically. She loved Italian. Thalia grinned as she texted Luke back. "We'll meet at the front entrance in an hour, and we'll all go in my car," she informed Annabeth. She looked at Annabeth, "I gotta go get some things ready for school tomorrow," she started to walk out the door, before turning back around and asking, "do you want me to go throw your shirt away for you?"

"No, it's okay, I'll get rid of it myself," Annabeth answered. "But thanks for everything, Thalia."

She smiled, "No problem. That's what friends are for." She left the room.

Annabeth felt better knowing she now had at least two friends before school started. She smiled to herself and then proceeded to get an architecture book. She pulled it close to her, sat on her bottom bunk of the bunk bed, and began to read.

At one point she glanced up at the time and noticed that it was almost time to meet Thalia and Luke to go for dinner. She got up, adjusted her clothes, gave herself a quick once-over, and grabbed her purse. As she was exiting the room and sliding her room keys into her purse, she noticed the now blue and white shirt sitting on her desk, where Thalia had left it.

She regarded it, and then, making a split-second decision, folded it up neatly and placed it into one of the drawers of her dresser. She didn't know what came over her to do that, instead of just throwing it away. It wasn't like she was going to wear it anyway. But she didn't change her mind and left the room, slightly befuddled by her own actions.

Line Break

Percy went into the room, looking around but finding no sign of Annabeth lurking around, ready to pounce on him. He breathed a sigh of relief before going to stuff his backpack with some supplies for his first day of college the next day. After he successfully finished his task, he got ready to go to sleep, brushing his teeth and changing into pajamas. He still felt kind of depressed knowing that his roommate hated him, and couldn't seem to fall asleep.

He started to feel his eyes drooping when his cell phone rang. He reached over, and answered the call with a "Hello?"

"Percy?" at the sound of her voice, Percy instantly felt better.

"Mom?" he could practically see her smile as she stood in the kitchen, probably in the process of cleaning dishes after eating dinner with Paul.

"How've you been doing sweetie? I'm sorry I didn't call you yesterday, I got caught up in writing my book with Paul," she said apologetically.

Percy usually would've groaned at her calling him 'sweetie' but he was too happy to do so. He missed his mom so much already, no matter how childish that sounded. "Mom, yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry about me. How are you and Paul?"

"We're great Percy. It feels so empty without you here though. You'll come down this weekend right?"

"Yeah mom, of course." Percy could almost taste those delicious blue chocolate chip cookies.

"Are you ready for tomorrow? How's the school? Who's your roommate?" Percy winced at the last one, but proceeded to answer her questions.

"Ugh, mom, my roommate hates me…" he explained in detail his problem and swore he heard her and Paul laughing through the phone.

"She doesn't hate you Percy, she's probably just a little annoyed," Sally said, trying to be positive about the situation.

"Yeah, sure."

"Just keep apologizing. She'll forgive you, eventually," she suggested.

Percy snorted. "Yeah."

"Believe me Percy, no one could stay mad at you that long. I'm your mother, I would know. Now you best be getting some sleep for school tomorrow. I'll call you again sometime this week, okay?"

Percy nodded, before realizing she couldn't see him. "Yeah. Love you, mom."

"Love you too Percy. Bye," she said before hanging up the phone.

Percy sighed, then made a quick decision, pulled out a piece of paper and started to write.

Line Break

Annabeth opened the door to her room softly, knowing quite well how late it was. She hadn't planned to stay up so late before school started the next day, but she got so caught up in hanging out with Thalia and Luke, who were really great. She was glad she was friends with them.

She switched on a lamp on her desk and put her purse down, when she spotted a sheet of paper on top of her architecture book.

It was just any other piece of notebook paper with a messy _Sorry_ written on it. She picked it up, looking over at the top bunk, where Percy was passed out, drooling a little. Her heart did this weird thing, and she felt kind of bad for being so mean to Percy.

She decided she forgave him, she just wasn't going to tell him that. To make it look like she was still angry, she crumpled up the paper and tossed it on the ground.

Then she changed and lay in bed, smiling. Maybe Percy wasn't _that_ bad.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Here we go again… ;) Forgive me for the late updates, but you know, life. Anyway, thank you so much for all the reviews, favorites, and follows! I be happy because of you, you and you (points fingers dramatically). Even you, the one reading this at one in the morning because you're just that awesome. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJatO…it's a sad truth.**

**Roommates – 6**

Percy was only _slightly_ disheartened by the crumpled piece of paper he spotted on the floor as he climbed down from the top bunk. Of course she would still be mad. He felt stupid for actually thinking otherwise. Annabeth's stupid alarm had gone off at six in the morning (again) and Percy had tried so hard to go back to sleep, but it just wasn't going to happen. Obviously, waking up an hour earlier than necessary was a _great_ way to start the first day of college. Percy groaned at the mere thought of school. He groaned again at the thought of facing an angry Annabeth. Then again, had he ever faced any other version of Annabeth? Percy was almost one hundred percent sure that he had not.

"Oh, stop feeling sorry for yourself…gods you're hopeless." Percy simply groaned again at her voice before running a hand through his unkempt hair. He glanced at her, taking in her blonde princess curls and the pride she held in her stance.

She looked at him, her eyes softening for a split-second before turning into their normal form that resembled stormy gray clouds. Ok fine, so he _was_ kind of adorable with his hair like that and he _had_ apologized to her. That didn't mean she was going to forgive him verbally anytime soon. He would have to earn it.

"So are you just going to stand there and glare at me?" Percy asked, irritated.

Annabeth snapped out of her little daze. "I could, but I have a life and classes to go to. Just a thought, but maybe you should stop lazing around and actually get prepared for your first day of classes."

Percy maintained his calm as he pointed out, "Uh…it's only six-thirty. My first class doesn't start until eight."

"My class doesn't start until eight either," Annabeth stated. "Better to get dressed now rather than later."

"Better late than never," Percy retorted just to irk her.

She rolled her eyes. "Of course _you _would live by _that_ principle."

Percy crossed his arms over his chest. "And I'm proud of it."

Annabeth simply pointed in the direction of the bathroom. "Get dressed."

Percy smirked. "Okay, _mom_," he said, proud of his first-grade-worthy insult. He grabbed some clothes and headed towards the bathroom, not catching the mischievous look on Annabeth's face.

Annabeth organized her supplies and textbooks for the second time before she heard Percy scream.

"AGH! COLD!" there was a pause before he put it together. "SERIOUSLY ANNABETH?"

She smiled evilly. Okay, so maybe it was a _little_ fun to torture Percy Jackson. She continued to smile as she heard Percy mumble angrily as he showered in freezing cold water. So maybe she had purposefully used all the hot water this morning just for revenge against Percy. That wasn't _super _cruel according to her standards. It definitely wasn't as bad as when those two twins at her summer camp filled her bed with fuzzy tarantulas. She shuddered at the memory.

A few minutes later, an irritated Percy walked out of the bathroom.

"I would say you were steaming with anger, but your water was probably too cold for you to actually steam," Annabeth stated. She couldn't resist using the pun.

Percy looked at her with a frown. "Not funny, Annabeth." He attempted to tame his unruly hair with his hands as he glared at her. "You're going to regret that."

Annabeth was only slightly frightened by his threat. "I highly doubt it," she responded with utmost confidence. She wasn't going to let Percy win this time. She was going to get the last laugh, and she was going to do anything to make sure of that.

"We'll see about that," Percy said quietly, before adjusting his green shirt and grabbing his backpack and textbooks. Annabeth was already heading out the door, curls bouncing slightly with every step. He sighed with relief. At least he wouldn't be facing her wrath for most of the day now that school was starting. It was highly unlikely that they would have any of the same classes.

Since it was only about seven, and there was still about an hour to kill before his first class, Percy switched on the television and flipped through the channels until he found an interesting cartoon with talking undersea creatures. He briefly recollected that this was a show he used to watch when he was about three, but he simply didn't care. As long as it took his mind off Annabeth, he was fine with it.

Line Break

Annabeth sat down in her advanced English class, an hour early, and flipped through the class syllabus as the teacher organized the lesson plan from his desk. She'd already conferenced with the teacher about her dyslexia and mild ADHD and figured out what pieces of literature they would be reading and analyzing over the course of the year. She was feeling very on top of everything and in control for the first time in the last two days, which calmed her nerves greatly.

After she finished going through the coursework for the class for the entire school year, she pulled out her architecture book and read it until she heard other people filing into the class. At eight o' clock, she turned to see all the students sitting and waiting for the class to start. The teacher got up and began to introduce himself.

"Good morning everyone, and welcome to advanced English. My name is Professor Adcock and here in advanced English we will be-" he was interrupted by the door opening loudly. Annabeth turned around to see who was interrupting.

She groaned in her head. In the doorway stood a very flustered Percy Jackson. Her first day of school was officially ruined.

"Ah, welcome Mr…?" Professor Adcock asked.

"Percy Jackson. Uh, I'm sorry I was late…I got lost and-" Percy started to explain. Annabeth rolled her eyes. _Of course_ he had gotten lost. She had totally warned him too.

Professor Adcock cut him off. "Mr. Jackson, I do not tolerate excuses or being late to class. Take a seat and from now on make it a point to get here on time." Percy nodded quickly as many of the students snickered. He bowed his head low and took a seat.

Professor Adcock continued with his introduction to the class and then put up a list of books and plays on the projector screen. "Mr. Jackson, could you please read out the list?"

Percy turned red as he stared hard at the list. "Uh…the first one says…Remoo dan Tuliej? No wait, that can't be right…" his eyebrows furrowed in concentration. The first play on the list was Romeo and Juliet.

The professor's face turned stern. "Be serious, Mr. Jackson. I don't appreciate jokes as much as your past teachers might have."

Percy looked truly apologetic. "I'm sorry, sir, but I can't-"

Annabeth heard everyone laugh as a burly girl in the middle of the classroom whispered, "He's so stupid he can't even read."

"Quiet down everyone." Professor Adcock turned to Percy. "Come on Mr. Jackson. You're wasting my time."

"I can't."

"I've had quite enough of your practical jokes, Mr. Jackson. Feel free to leave my class until you're feeling ready to take this course."

"But, sir-" Percy started.

"Please do not cause any more commotion in my class."

Everyone snickered as Percy walked quietly out of the class, defeated. Annabeth didn't understand why he was being so stupid. He didn't seem like the one to be sassy for no particular reason. Something was wrong. For some reason, Annabeth wanted to know what had really happened.

Line Break

After Annabeth had gotten through all of her classes, she'd already accumulated a ton of homework. She headed back to her dorm purposefully, having completely forgotten about what had happened in the morning. When she opened the door, the first thing she saw was a frustrated Percy Jackson pulling at his hair as he stared at his literature textbook.

He turned to see who was at the door, but when he saw that it was just her he resumed to staring at his textbook.

She looked at him confusedly. They didn't even have that much homework for English. It was just to read some of Romeo and Juliet. She didn't get why he was so exasperated.

"What, you're too lazy to even read Romeo and Juliet for homework?" she asked teasingly.

"Haha, you're so funny for making fun of a dyslexic kid. Go ahead and laugh, so what if I can't read very well?" He huffed indignantly.

Percy was not having a good day. First, Annabeth had made him shower in freezing cold water and then he had been humiliated in his first class. The other classes were boring and lame, except for his Marine Biology class. That had been the only highlight of his day. Now everyone from his first class were cracking jokes about how he couldn't read whenever he passed by.

Annabeth being there wasn't helping much. He waited for her to make fun of him after had revealed to her that he was dyslexic. Instead he heard the squeak of wood against wood and glanced up to see Annabeth pulling up a chair to his desk. She plopped down in the chair next to him and looked at him carefully.

"Why didn't you tell the teacher?" she asked thoughtfully.

"How could I, when he kept cutting me off, and everyone else was laughing at me?"

Her eyes softened. "Look, I'm sorry. I had no idea you had dyslexia. Here, I'll show you some tricks to help you read faster." She leaned across him and reached for the textbook, and then pointed at the words and explained stuff to him. Slowly, he was starting to get the hang of it, and the words actually stayed on the page.

Percy smiled as he started reading the words fluently. When he got through all the lines they had to read for homework, he looked at Annabeth curiously with bright green eyes. "How did you know how to do all that?"

Annabeth pushed her hair out of her face softly and got up from the chair. Her heart was doing weird things from being so close to him, especially when he looked at her in such gratitude.

She pulled her bag up from the ground and brought it to the desk, deciding that there was enough space at the table for both of them to do their work. She set it down and looked at him softly. "I may or may not have dyslexia too."

She moved her chair to the opposite side of the table, establishing more distance between them so she could actually focus on finishing her homework. She didn't understand why she was feeling so nervous and awkward around Percy, none of it made sense. But something had definitely changed between them. She tried not to dwell on it much as she drew a model bridge for her architecture class.

Percy worked on his marine biology terms quietly, secretly glancing at Annabeth from time to time. He noticed that she chewed on her pencil whenever she was really deep in thought, and he was starting to find it kind of cute.

When Percy realized his train of thought, he shook his head. What was wrong with him? More so, what was wrong with them? Weren't they supposed to be at each other's throats and arguing over his clumsiness?

Annabeth looked up. "Trying to shake off your stupidity? It's not going to work." She smirked to herself.

Percy suddenly felt relieved. This was more like it. "Whatever, at least I'm not a dumb blonde."

She looked at him with sharp anger. "Take it back, Jackson! I swear I'll destroy what little of your brain you have left in there. I am anything but a dumb blonde!"

He rolled his eyes mockingly. "Sure."

Annabeth groaned. "Ugh, you're impossible."

Percy just smiled. "You wish you were as awesome as me."

She shoved him off his chair and laughed as he fell face first on the floor. He groaned in defeat. "Fine you win this time Chase. But you're going down next time."

"Whatever."

Annabeth started to hate Percy less and less as they argued lightly and worked on their homework. Maybe they could actually even be friends. She shook her head at that idea.

"Now who's got fleas?" Percy said, laughing.

She punched his arm. She definitely did not want to be friends with such a dimwit.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Hey guys! Bet you thought I wasn't going to post for like another month, but I was feeling the writing vibes, so here you are! I was so happy after you guys blew up my inbox with favorites, follows, and reviews! YAY! I use way too many exclamation marks…but whatever! Love you all ****!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJatO. Uncle Rick does.**

**Roommates – 7**

The first week of college had passed agonizingly slowly for Percy. He felt like he was drowning in notes and homework. Professor Adcock had eventually warmed up to Percy once he realized that he had dyslexia and apologized for going off on him. He'd made good impressions on most all of his teachers except for his math teacher, who probably hated him already. Percy wasn't going to deny that he sucked at math. Like a lot.

On Tuesday he'd gotten back at Annabeth by waking up earlier (which was practically unheard of for Percy) and dumping a glass of ice cold water on her head. She'd fumed and then declared war. Once his shampoo had mysteriously been replaced with volume-enhancing product and another day his water bottle had been filled with salt water. Percy had filled Annabeth's shoes with soap and taken all the ink out of her pens in response (she'd gotten angrier over the pens, as she couldn't take good notes in her classes. Percy called her a nerd). Percy and Annabeth's bonding moment at the beginning of the week had been completely forgotten about.

Percy was exceptionally happy when Friday came around. He'd somehow managed to finish all his work in two hours and started to pack stuff for his trip home. In truth, Percy had been looking forward to going home and having his mom bake blue chocolate chip cookies for him. Plus, his mom was willing to do his laundry for him, since he _still_ hadn't really gotten the hang of it, which was a definite plus. Going home meant being pampered, and deep inside Percy loved when his mom treated him like the little kid he secretly was. He smiled as he started to throw all his dirty clothes in a bag and then hastily left the room to get some snacks for the drive home.

Annabeth was flipping through her architecture textbook on the couch in the living room. Most of the facts and information she was already familiar with, but she still enjoyed reading it. She highlighted and made notes about things that stood out and she wanted to look back on. Just as she finished marking up the chapter about standard support beams, materials, and layouts for building stable infrastructures, the phone started to ring.

She looked around for Percy, but then remembered he'd just left the room, so she got up slowly and reached for the phone hanging on the wall by the kitchen counter. She figured it was probably Thalia or Luke, who had probably already made plans for them this weekend. When she picked up the phone, however, it was a woman's voice she didn't recognize.

"Hello, Percy?" she asked, before coughing loudly.

"Hi, sorry, this is Annabeth, Percy's roommate," Annabeth responded. "He just left the room like a minute ago."

"Oh, sorry dear. This is Percy's mom. How is college going for you? Is Percy bothering you?" she asked in a kind, motherly way.

Annabeth felt jealous. She'd always wanted her mom to ask her about her personal life, but that never really happened. She told Percy's mom that college was going well and that Percy wasn't bothering her _too_ much. When she said the last part she swore she heard faint laughing on the other line.

"That's great Annabeth. Just let me know if he's getting on your nerves and I'll talk to him," Percy's mom said jokingly.

"Thanks Mrs. Jackson," she said with a smile. She already liked Percy's mom a lot.

Percy walked in with a multiple bags of blue Doritos, blue vitamin water, and an inquisitive expression on his face when he saw Annabeth talking on the phone.

"Call me Sally, dear. Mrs. Jackson makes me feel old."

"Thanks, Sally," Annabeth corrected. "Percy's here by the way, if you want to talk to him."

"Could I?" she asked. "It was really nice talking with you Annabeth. Could you make sure Percy does well in school for me please?"

Annabeth smiled, "Of course, Sally." She handed the phone to Percy.

Percy blushed slightly. He couldn't believe she'd just talked to him mom. That was just…weird. He held the phone to his ear. "Hey mom," he instantly smiled. His mom just had that effect on him.

"Hey Percy." He immediately picked up the raspy way her voice sounded, like she had a sore throat. She coughed slightly.

"Are you sick mom? Are you okay?" He asked, concerned greatly for her health.

"Yes, dear. That's why I called. You should probably come visit next week, Percy. Paul and I have both caught some horrible virus and I don't want to get you sick too, especially with school and all."

"It's okay, mom. I still want to come," he urged.

"No, Percy. I don't want you getting sick. Paul and I will take care of each other, don't worry about us," she assured him.

"But Mom-" he argued.

"No buts Percy, you're staying for my sake. I'll bake you two batches of cookies next weekend if you do," she bribed. She was smart like that.

Percy gave in to the temptation. "Fine. But if you guys need anything, I'm coming down there."

He could almost feel her smiling through the phone. "Okay. That's all I wanted to tell you. Be nice to Annabeth. Bye dear."

Percy snuck a glance at Annabeth, curled up on the couch, absorbed in some book. "Yeah mom, I will. Love you."

"Love you too Percy. Bye." She hung up the phone.

Percy placed the phone back on its spot on the wall. He was pretty disappointed about not being able to go home for the weekend. He also fretted slightly about his laundry that he would now have to do himself.

Annabeth looked up at him, "Your mom seems a lot nicer than you," she smirked. "Are you even her son, or were you like, adopted?"

"I am _too_ nice," he insisted, putting his now unnecessary snacks in the cupboard of the kitchen.

She laughed comically. "Yeah right. Also, what's with the blue food?" she cocked an eyebrow up in question.

"It's an inside joke with my mom. My first stepdad was a total jerk and told her that there was no such thing as blue food. So we decided to show him he was wrong by always making and eating blue food. We've kind of made it more of a tradition now, though, since he left."

Annabeth smiled, though she looked somewhat wistful. "You and your mom seem really close."

He nodded. "Yeah, we're basically best friends. She's pretty awesome."

Annabeth couldn't help but feel a yearning to have a similar relationship with her own mother. Athena Chase never seemed to want to give her the time of day. Still, she couldn't hold back a genuine smile. His ocean green eyes glowed with delight as he praised his mother. It was kind of endearing how much he loved her.

* * *

Annabeth sighed with content as she finished all her homework and reading for the weekend. She knew it was Friday night, but she didn't really have any plans. For a while she contemplated what she could do and eventually decided on going to the library and checking out some more books on architecture. But right as she got up from her spot on the couch, her phone buzzed with a text from Thalia.

_Wanna eat dinner with Luke and I in the Cafeteria?_

Annabeth texted back a "sure" and decided to change our of her sweats before heading down to eat.

After slipping on some ripped jeans and a baby pink sweatshirt, she headed to the cafeteria, disregarding a confused looking Percy standing by the washing machine in the mini-laundry room.

Luke and Thalia were arguing animatedly by big windows that displayed the beautiful courtyard of the campus. It was dark, but the trees were lit up with tinkling white lights that just barely illuminated the varying shades of the leaves on the tree. Annabeth was still adjusting to the colder, more unusual weather of New York. San Francisco was always sunny and hot, which could get boring some times. She found herself admiring New York more and more over where she had been raised.

She took a spot next to Thalia and they both smiled at her in acknowledgement before Thalia scowled at Luke and said, "Tater tots are definitely better than French fries. Wouldn't you agree Annabeth?"

Annabeth registered that this was what they probably had been quarreling about when she first noticed them, not something actually serious, of course. She thought for a few seconds before disagreeing. "I think I prefer French fries."

Luke gave her his hand for a high-five, before turning his head to Thalia. "See? Annabeth is my kind of girl." He gave her his signature smirk. Annabeth blushed slightly, though she had no idea why.

"I can't believe I'm friends with people who like _French fries_ over tater tots! Tater tots actually have potato and flavor. French fries are just skinny little tater-tot-wannabes with too much salt. They're rip-offs of tater tots!" Thalia exclaimed.

"So we're ordering French fries with our burgers then?" Luke asked, completely ignoring Thalia's predicament." Thalia shoved him as Annabeth nodded assent and laughed.

They went and bought their burgers and fries, Thalia getting a separate box of tater tots to stick with her point. Annabeth got a vanilla milkshake to complete the meal and randomly thought of how Percy would insist on making it blue before actually drinking it. She smiled a little, even though it made no sense as to why she was thinking such a thing.

As they ate their extremely unhealthy dinners, the three of them talked about their first week of school. Thalia described an interesting incident that involved a purple highlighter, an earthworm, and her bald biology teacher. They laughed until their stomachs hurt when Luke complained about how his business teacher yelled at him for eating an apple in class while she was lecturing on advertising, saying it was a 'disruption of her class.'

Eventually they moved on to the subject of roommates. Thalia said she had to share a room with a boy named Charles Beckendorf. She said he was pretty chill and had a talent with welding. Luke apparently had Beckendorf's girlfriend, Silena Beauregard, who was very nice, frilly, and loved all things cute. Finally they got to Annabeth, who currently had mixed feelings about Percy Jackson.

"He's okay, I guess. Kind of weird and a bit of a klutz at times, but I can deal," she decides.

Thalia's eyes glinted mischievously. "So…my cousin's not as bad as you thought originally?"

Annabeth flushed slightly. She hated being wrong about anything. She took pride in being right and being wrong about Percy Jackson picked at her pride. She wasn't about to admit that she was wrong and accept defeat, even though the truth was contrary of that.

"I don't know…he's still _very_ annoying."

Thalia just grinned. "Uh-huh."

After that the subject was dropped and an awkward silence ensued before Luke bravely broke it.

"So there's this big party thing tonight in the gym, you guys wanna go? There's gonna be an open bar and stuff." he suggested.

Another weird thing about New University. There were parties that the staff totally knew about but let happen, so long as it stayed in the gym and didn't interfere with anything going on at the school. Annabeth had found it slightly strange that her mother had went to a school where parties were practically encouraged every weekend.

Thalia nodded enthusiastically. "Sounds fun. You gonna come Annie?"

Annabeth morphed her face into one of disgust. "Did you just call me 'Annie?'" Then she shrugged, "And no thanks, I'm not one for partying."

Luke smirked. "Come on Annie, it'll be fun." She shoved him when he called her Annie.

"Maybe next time. Plus, I need to make sure Percy didn't burn down our room yet," she added lightheartedly.

"Fine," Thalia accepted her answer. "But you have to promise to come to the next party."

Annabeth agreed. "Okay."

Luke smiled. "Cool! So I guess we'll see you later, Annie."

Annabeth nodded. "Yeah. See ya. Don't get too drunk," she teased.

She then turned around and made her way back to her dorm.

* * *

It turned out that Percy Jackson hadn't burned down the room. Instead, he had covered it in bubbles.

He gave Annabeth a flustered look as she opened the door. When she realized that there was bubbly foam coming out of the mini-laundry room and progressing into the living room, she threw him an irritated look.

"What did you _do_?" she asked, baffled on how he could have made such a mess in the one hour she had been gone.

"I tried to do my laundry?" he asked himself. He scratched his head. "Maybe I put in the wrong amount of detergent," he thought aloud.

"Exactly how much detergent _did _you put in the washing machine?" she asked, getting closer to exploding with every word she said. How could he mess up with such a simple task? Now the floor was going to get wet and she'd have to clean up the bubbles and water. She did not want to spend her Friday night cleaning up after Percy.

To his credit, Percy looked apologetically scared as he said, "Ten cups."

"Gods, Percy! You're only supposed to put _one_ cup! But you're too stupid and you obviously can't even read the instructions on the detergent box…agh!" she yelled in frustration.

He winced at her hurtful words and muttered a depressed 'sorry.'

She looked at him and realized she was being too harsh. Here he was, sincerely apologizing for mistakes he couldn't help but make with him being both clumsy and possessing dyslexia. And what was she doing? Bullying him and calling him stupid. She didn't mean to inflict pain on him; she just didn't really have a filter when she was frustrated. It wasn't fair to take it all out on him.

She took a few deep breaths to calm down before saying nonchalantly, "Whatever. Let's just clean this up, okay?"

Percy glanced at her, feeling befuddled. Why wasn't she yelling more at him? Not that he wanted her too, but it seemed kind of out of character for her. He chose not to dwell on it much.

They walked through the bubbles to the washing machine, which was overflowing with water. By the time they reached the machine, they were covered in bubbles. Just as Annabeth attempted to open the lid, she slipped. Percy immediately reached out and caught her, and for a few seconds they stayed locked like that, Annabeth's swirling storm cloud eyes going soft as they connected with Percy's ocean green ones. Then she randomly burst out laughing.

Percy became confused once again. "What?" he asked.

Annabeth couldn't help but notice how his eyebrows scrunched together when he was confused and that it made him look really adorably. Then she explained, pointing to his face, which was covered in bubbles. "You look like Santa Claus!" She started laughing again. The bubbles went just around his face and over his lips, the way she'd always imagined Santa Claus' beard and mustache to look like.

Percy smiled. He liked when Annabeth laughed. Then he reached out, grabbing some bubbles and reaching out for her face. She shrieked and tried to run away from him but slipped and Percy fell on top of her. He put his soapy hands on her face and covered it in bubbles.

"Now who looks like Santa Claus?" he asked proudly, as both of them laughed.

Then they both seemed to notice their position, lying on top of each other on the floor. Percy immediately got up and offered her his hand, blushing profusely. She reached for his hand and he pulled her up. The force of the pull, however, caused them to slip and crash against the wall.

Annabeth rubbed her head. "Ow. Hanging out with you is damaging my head." She laughed though, which made Percy laugh.

They eventually both got up and cleaned up the mess, throwing bubbles at each other and making faces at each other. When they finished Percy looked carefully at Annabeth before asking, "Do you forgive me?"

She realized he wasn't just talking about the laundry incident, but about everything else he had done too. Annabeth finally gave in. "Yeah. You're forgiven."

Percy fist-pumped. "Yes!"

Annabeth smirked. "That doesn't mean you're off the hook."

Percy _pouted_. His eyes got really big and with his hair all crazy and filled with bubbles, Annabeth almost forgave him completely.

Almost.

**A/N (again): This was just super fun to write! **** Also, to my fellow Swifties, who loves 1989? I got it yesterday at Target and I'm in love. My favorite song is Blank Space! But all the songs are awesome. Been listening to it literally 24/7. What are your guys' faves? If you hate Taylor, or are not a Swiftie, what's your current favorite song? I'll make an effort to listen to it! Thanks for reading and I love you all! **


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: I could write like a thousand excuses as to why this is so late…but let's just get to the reading 'cause that's what you want to do right? **

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJatO. Rick does. **

**Roommates – 8 **

Annabeth definitely couldn't say that she hadn't been having a rough week. There was so much work and stress and tests and pressure, and to make matters worse, her mother had decided to _actually_ pay attention to her for once. She wasn't exactly happy to discover that her mother was only monitoring her success to make sure she didn't ruin Athena's exceedingly wonderful reputation.

"A 9.9 out of 10, Annabeth? Really? On a calculus quiz, no less. I thought you understood calculus. You do, don't you? Or do you need a tutor?"

Annabeth huffed lightly so her mother wouldn't hear her through the phone. "Mom, it was a miniscule mistake. I don't need a tutor just for that. The teacher is super strict with her grading, and I forgot to go to three significant figures on my last problem. I'm sorry."

She imagined Athena holding her cell phone, listening but not really paying attention to her words. "You should not be making these types of mistakes, Annabeth, especially this early into the academic year. I better see all tens next week then. No pathetic mistakes," she responded in a demanding tone. "I'll call you when time allows it, I have some important business. Bye." Athena then hung up the phone, not even waiting for Annabeth's disheartened 'goodbye.' Not that she cared. Not that everything she did was all geared towards the purpose of impressing her mother.

Annabeth hung up the phone and leaned against the wall, trying to compose herself. She was getting a bit frustrated with Athena, who was getting on her case for nothing. It would be different if Annabeth was not driven and didn't strive to do her best. She wouldn't mind being chastised, but the thing was that she actually _did_ try her best in school and she put forth a lot of effort into her work. Most of her classmates had already pinned her down as the class nerd, the smart one, the know-it-all, etc, etc. It wasn't fair of Athena to fuss over her miniscule mistakes. It was especially unfair of her mother to expect her to be perfect. Would she never be good enough?

As she continued leaning against the wall, she brainstormed some of the things she wished she had told Athena during their conversation when she was interrupted rudely by a girl's voice from the television.

"Previously on _Pretty Little Liars_…"

Annabeth felt her eyebrows rise as she turned to find Percy Jackson sitting attentively on the couch, eyes focused on the screen in front of him. She couldn't stop the laughter that bubbled up inside of her.

Percy kept his eyes on the television while simultaneously asking, "What's so funny?"

Annabeth could not believe this. "Why are _you_ watching _Pretty Little Liars_?" she asked amusedly.

"Why can't I? It's Friday night and it's a free country! Plus, I'm bored and this girl in my math class is always talking about this show, so I figured there's a first time for everything."

"You are literally the weirdest person I have ever met."

Percy looked offended. "Geez, it isn't such a big deal. Calm down. If you can't stand me watching this show, why don't _you_ pick something?"

Annabeth snorted. "Fine, then." She grabbed the remote from him and flipped through multiple channels. At last, she found what she was looking for, crossed her arms, and leaned back against the couch with a sigh of content.

Percy's face contorted into one of disgust. "_National Geographic_? Really?"

"_National Geographic_ is great. It's educational. You should try watching it for a change."

"So I can listen to some old guy talk about potholes? No thanks." He made a grab for the remote, but Annabeth pulled it away.

"He is not talking about 'potholes.' I mean, he is, but he's relating it to the theory of the Great Flood. It's actually very intriguing. You see, the theory is that-" Annabeth began, but not before Percy cut her off.

"We should just watch SpongeBob instead. Come on, Annabeth, live a little!" Percy tried again for his hand at the remote, but Annabeth moved her arm out of reach.

"I'm pretty sure watching SpongeBob is not considered 'living.'"

"Watching _National Geographic_ is worse. It's like getting buried alive in a pothole as a guy with a long gray beard discusses the pros and cons of symbiotic relationships."

Annabeth snorted. She _snorted_. And the weird thing was, she didn't really even notice. Usually, she would cover her face and feel completely embarrassed; it was just not a trait she was proud of. Snorting is what pigs do. It is not what smart and sophisticated people did. Yet here she was, snorting in front of Percy Jackson to no avail and not even trying to mask it with a cough or sneeze.

As she recovered from her transformation into a pig she pushed back her hair. "For the record, I don't think people get buried alive in potholes. And how do you know that the person who's narrating has a long gray beard? That's so shallow. For all we know, he could be the spitting image of you!"

Percy laughed. "Trust me, if he was the spitting image of me, he'd be an actor or a singer. He'd be a heartthrob plastered on the front cover of all those Hollywood magazines. He would not be narrating for National Geographic."

"Are you calling yourself attractive?"

"Well, I wouldn't say I'm unattractive! Plus, I have great acting skills!" he protested.

Annabeth just rolled her eyes. "Puh-lease. You? Fifty years from now, you _will_ be the guy narrating the next feature for National Geographic."

"Ha! So you admit that the guy does have a long gray beard!"

"What?! No?!" Annabeth denied. She moved her hand higher, as Percy made a grab for the remote.

"Come on, Annabeth, let me change it! You can watch your boring show later!" He reached higher for the remote.

This time Percy got hold of Annabeth's hand that was holding the remote. Annabeth, however, refused to let go. Percy was not making any move to let go either. Annabeth gave a hard tug on his arm and somehow he ended on top of her on the couch, their noses on the verge of touching. Annabeth felt her heart quicken.

"Get off of me before I break all of your bones," she said as menacingly as she could. For some reason, she could not breathe normally.

Percy threw her a goofy smirk and raised one eyebrow questioningly. "Are you going to give me the remote?"

She was having trouble thinking clearly. She had the sudden urge to reach up and brush back his hair. His ocean green eyes seemed to see right through her. "What?" she said. She was surprised at how soft her voice sounded.

He smiled knowingly. "Do I distract you, Annabeth? Have you finally given in to the fact that I am, indeed, attractive?"

She scoffed. "You? Distract me? In your dreams, Jackson."

"So we're on a last name basis now, are we?"

She rolled her eyes. "Just get off before I make you wish you did."

"Just give me the remote, Chase and I'll leave you alone. What are you going to do?"

She smiled sweetly at him before punching him hard in the stomach. He wheezed slightly before rolling onto the ground

"Ow. What the heck?" he rubbed his injured stomach lightly.

Annabeth tried to hide the fact that her hand hurt like she'd just punched a brick wall. She did not know that Percy had abs under that shirt. Maybe he ate rocks instead of actual food? Wait, what? What was happening to her? She was definitely losing brain cells. Eating rocks? Rocks or not, she was pretty sure that the punch hurt her more than it hurt him. Not that he had to know that.

"I warned you," she said as triumphantly as one can when really all she wanted was a bag of ice for her throbbing knuckles.

He got up from the ground and sat himself down next to her on the couch. "Fine, you win this time, Chase. But there will definitely be a next time."

Annabeth rolled her eyes, yet again, but this time she couldn't hold back a genuine smile. In the strangest of ways, Percy had managed to take her mind off her frustration with her mom. It was nice to just be friendly with someone. It was nice to just be herself and not have to live up to someone else's expectations. It was just…nice.

Line Break

After an eternity of watching _National Geographic_ with Annabeth (or more accurately sneaking peeks at Annabeth watch _National Geographic)_, Percy's eyelids started to droop. He shifted so that his head was on the armrest, and sooner than later, he found himself falling asleep.

Annabeth, of course, was still completely absorbed in the theory of the Great Flood (though she already knew most of the facts the narrator was spouting out every few minutes). She didn't seem to notice Percy passed out from sheer boredom, despite the fact that he was literally right next to her. As the feature finished and the credits started rolling, she stretched her arms and legs and was about to tease Percy about how this was probably the most intellectual thing he'd ever watched when there was a knock on the door.

She stretched a little more and adjusted her shirt before going to open the door. The first thing that caught her eyes was the red hair. It was curly and full of life, and she'd never seen anything quite like it before. Annabeth was about to comment on it when the girl smiled invitingly.

"Hi, I'm Rachel. Can I come in?"

Annabeth was utterly confused. She was pretty sure she didn't know any Rachel, nor had she seen this girl around school. She was also pretty sure that she would remember someone like Rachel. Rachel had bright green eyes and a kind, yet mischievous smile. She was wearing a blue _Save the Whales!_ tee-shirt and her jeans had random patches of paint on them. Everything about her was a bit unique, almost to the point of being eccentric.

Rachel must have noticed Annabeth's confusion somehow because she laughed lightly and explained. "Oh, sorry, I'm a friend of Percy's. I go to NYU, and we were planning to hang this weekend, but he probably forgot, being the dummy he is," she joked. Annabeth smiled. At least _someone_ understood.

"Yeah, sure, come on in," Annabeth replied, opening the door fully and letting Rachel in. Rachel and Annabeth walked over to the couch to find Percy sound asleep. Rachel laughed again before tapping him on the forehead.

"Wake up, Percy." Rachel said, still smiling.

Percy jumped up, his eyes flying open and connecting immediately with the first thing he spotted in the room, which was Annabeth. He felt his face flush when he found her looking back, her nose slightly crinkled. He turned around and spotted Rachel, who was also grinning. "What?"

Annabeth spoke. "You drool in your sleep." Her voice held a laugh, but her face was serious.

"What? No!" He quickly wiped his mouth, finding just a little drool.

Rachel sat down on the armrest next to him and tousled his hair. "Duh, you do Percy. Stop lying. Now give your friend a hug, you idiot." Percy slowly got up and gave Rachel a hug.

Annabeth watched, suddenly feeling weird. She felt like she was in the middle of something, like she was interrupting. She also wondered for a millisecond what hugging Percy would be like. Then she shook her head. What was she thinking?

They broke away from their hug and Annabeth tried to muster a smile, but for some reason it was harder.

"Oh my gosh Percy I have so much to tell you about NYU! It's like everything I've ever dreamed of and my dad isn't even freaking out about it! He wanted me to go to some proper girl's university at first, but I convinced him and it's just so great!" Rachel started.

Percy nodded. "Why don't we sit down in the kitchen and you can tell me everything Rachel. Do you want coffee or something?"

Annabeth started heading towards the bedroom as Rachel gave her answer, taking this as her cue to leave. As she started to turn the door knob, Percy called her.

"Hey, Annabeth, where are you going? Come and sit with us."

"No, it's fine, I was just going to-" she started, not really knowing _what_ she was going to do.

"Come on, Annabeth." He pulled a chair out for her.

She nodded and sat down and Rachel began to talk again as Percy handed her a glass of water, grabbed a coke for himself, and took a seat as well. "So anyway, I was making this new vase in my pottery class and-"

Not meaning to, Annabeth felt herself tuning out Rachel and found that she was watching Percy out of the corner of her eye. Whatever Rachel was talking about, it must have been interesting, because Percy's sea green eyes lit up and held a sort of light in them she didn't think she'd even seen before. He laughed at something she'd say every few minutes. Annabeth started to feel left out and slightly angry, but she couldn't figure out why.

Rachel told him about how she'd thrown her trusty plastic blue hairbrush at a professor that was being extremely rude. He'd taken a sip of his coke and couldn't hold it in, so he spit it out. Right on Annabeth. Rachel's eyes widened but Percy was still so caught up in the joke cracking up like it was the funniest thing in the world.

"The same plastic blue hairbrush you threw at our science teacher junior year?" he managed between laughs. Then he seemed to notice the awkward silence and Rachel's widened eyes. He saw Annabeth and his whole demeanor changed. "Oh my, Annabeth, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to-" he got up and reached out to her, grabbing some napkins as well.

Annabeth felt pissed. There was no other word. _He_ was the one who'd asked her to sit down and talk with them, and then he'd gone to not even noticing her and spitting on her. Now he was acting all apologetic as if _that_ could make up for it. If he'd wanted to hang out with _Rachel_ so much, he could have just said so. He didn't have to make her sit there like a bumbling fool and listen to their inside jokes and memories.

"No, it's fine. I have some reading to do for a class anyway." Why was she lying? She didn't have any homework and here she was, lying. What was happening to her? She tried not to storm off dramatically, managing to walk towards the bedroom.

"Wait, Annabeth, you know I didn't mean to-" he said as he started to follow her, grabbing her arm. She turned and pulled her arm away from her, then locked her eyes onto his. "Percy, really. It's fine. Just go." Then she turned and shut the bedroom door behind her, ignoring the hurt look on his face.

She changed and sat on the bed, trying to read a book she'd picked up for some light reading. Instead she found herself listening to Percy and Rachel laughing in the kitchen and feeling angrier. She put the book away and put on her headphones, blasting the sound of laughter away with music. She lay down on the bed, staring up at the bottom of the top bunk until the music faded and she fell asleep.

Annabeth didn't like the way she was feeling. She didn't like it one bit.

**A/N: Ooooh Annabeth. Hope you enjoyed! **** OMG THERE'S A SPIDER ON MY WALL. Bye. **


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: What?! An update within a week? What is happening?! I know, I know. Don't expect this. IT'S UNNATURAL. I'm blaming it on my sort-of insomnia (during the summer, especially).**

**Disclaimer: You know the drill, Rick owns everything. **

Roommates – 9

"It was great talking to you Percy, after so long. Thanks for having me over. We should do this again sometime," Rachel offered, as she pulled on a jacket and headed out the door.

Percy smiled. "Sure thing, Rachel. Come back anytime." He waved as she headed to the elevator. "Bye." He watched her red curls bounce until she was out of sight. After shutting the door, he headed into the bedroom.

All the lights were off except for the lamp on top of the dresser. Percy walked as quietly as he could manage before he heard the faint sound of music. He glanced around the room until his eyes fell on Annabeth's sleeping form. Her hair was fanned out around her, just like a princess'. She was in sweats and curled up in a ball, probably from the cold. The heating system on their floor had been malfunctioning all week. But Percy's main focus was the headphones blasting music that were still on her ears.

Percy contemplated how comfortable Annabeth probably felt. In truth, she didn't look relaxed at all. So he did the only sensible thing he could think of. He reached over her and pulled off her headphones as gently as possible, finding the iPhone they were connected to. He then turned off the music and placed her phone with headphones on the dresser.

"So annoying…" he heard her murmur in her sleep. He didn't even try to hold back the smile that came upon his face. Then he searched the closet for an extra blanket and tucked her in, the way his mom did for him. She snuggled into the blanket and made a small sound of contentment. Percy smiled wider. It was kind of cute.

Kind of.

Line Break

Annabeth sat up in her bed and found that at some point in the night she'd lost her headphones and gained a warm blanket. It was peculiar. At home in San Francisco no one checked up on her. She was regarded as exceedingly mature for her age, and at some point her father had decided that she was no longer dependent upon him. Sure, he still cared for her greatly, but ever since Athena left things had changed. The house was quieter with the disappearance of Athena's constant nitpicking and her controlling personality. Her father buried himself in his history textbooks and battle scenes, and Annabeth surrounded herself with homework and architecture. They would only have breakfast together, both of them sipping coffee and occasionally sharing their plans for the day. It was…lonely.

That was of course, until Frederick met Susan. Annabeth didn't really _hate_ Susan. She just didn't like Susan a lot. She was too nice and too happy. Mostly though, Annabeth was irked by the fact that anyone could take Athena's place. But that didn't stop her father from marrying Susan within the course of a year. Next thing she knew, freshmen year Annabeth had twin brothers, Mathew and Bobby. They were annoying, yet endearing. Annabeth liked them considerably more than Susan, even though they would often destroy her models for the architecture class she took in high school.

She thought about what Frederick would be doing now that she was gone. Probably following his usual routine, which involved locking himself up in the basement all day studying the physics of the catapult or something along those lines. He could have also gone to the university to work on some lectures. He was most likely doing one of the two, while Susan read and the boys messed around. It was always like that when she was there. She wondered if anyone missed her.

The faint smell of coffee brewing reached her nose. Annabeth stretched and got out of the comfort of her bed. She padded slowly to the kitchen, her feet barely echoing on the tile floor. Percy was humming softly to himself, his hands busy with two mugs of coffee. She almost laughed out loud seeing the state of his hair, but retained her composure. It was stuck up in all different directions. Percy, still oblivious of her presence, started to stir in sugar. Annabeth couldn't help but use the opportunity.

She tiptoed behind him and tapped him on the shoulder. Percy jumped about a foot in the air. "What the?! Crap!" he spilled hot coffee all over himself before turning around, his eyes wide in surprise. His whole body visibly relaxed when he realized it was her. "God, Annabeth, I thought you were sleeping." He ran a hand through his hair nervously as he held out a cup of coffee to her. "Coffee?"

"Do you even have to ask?" Then as a joke, Annabeth added, "Is it blue?" Percy smiled at that as he handed her the coffee.

He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. "Would you like for it to be blue?"

Annabeth covered her mouth to hide the smile. He was just so…goofy. "Eh, no thanks. Blue food probably tastes like cardboard anyway." She made a face to convey her disgust.

Percy shrugged. "You don't know until you try it."

She rolled her eyes and sat down on one of the barstools, across the island from Percy, who was watching her closely, still in his coffee stained shirt. A silence ensued until Percy interrupted. "So about last night…"

Annabeth cut him off partly because she was worried and mostly because she hated confrontation, especially that which involved discussing emotions. "Are you okay, Percy?" she looked pointedly at his shirt.

Percy looked down at himself. "Oh, yeah. Meh, it only stings a little now."

She shrugged. "Just think of it as payback for spitting on me."

He smiled. "Really? So we're even then? You aren't mad at me?"

She hated how easily he could be assured that everything was fine, mostly because she wished she had that ability herself. Annabeth was always the one holding grudges and taking forever to get over small incidents.

"No way, I'm still pretty mad about that. I'll find a way for you to properly repay me." She said practically.

Percy frowned. "Right. As long as whatever it is does not involve you punching me."

Annabeth smirked. "That sounds tempting, actually." She finished off her coffee and got up to put it in the sink.

Percy backed away as she got closer to him. "Please don't." He held his hands up in mock surrender. Annabeth smiled as evilly as she could, stepping closer as Percy stepped back. Eventually he was cornered against the wall.

"Hmm…what should I do?" She tapped her chin, pretending to determine Percy's punishment as he looked on in fear.

Suddenly he bolted. Annabeth chased him around the room until somehow it turned around and Percy was chasing Annabeth. She locked herself up in the bathroom and a few seconds later a loud knock sounded against the door.

She waited a few moments, thinking it was a trick to get her to come out and lose to Percy, when she heard Thalia's voice.

"Hey, Kelp Head, is Annabeth here?" Thalia asked.

"Annabeth? Oh, yeah." She could practically hear the smile in his voice. "She's locked herself in the bathroom because she has diarrhea."

Annabeth threw open the bathroom door and stormed out. She shoved Percy and looked desperately at Thalia. "Don't listen to him, he's an idiot." Percy faked an expression of hurt. Thalia just raised an eyebrow coolly. Annabeth couldn't believe this. "I don't have diarrhea!"

Percy and Thalia burst out laughing. Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Haha, guys, real mature, not elementary school humor at all."

Once the cousins both wiped the tears out of their eyes Thalia looked at Annabeth. "Get dressed, we're going out."

Annabeth was a bit thrown off. "Where?"

"Central Park. Then just around the area, you know. We _are_ in New York. Put on something warm, it's chilly out. Luke's coming too." Then she gestured to Percy. "You want to come, cuz?"

He shook his head. "Sorry. Already got plans. I'm hanging out with some old friends. But have fun."

Annabeth pondered for a split second whether Rachel was one of the 'old friends' Percy was hanging out with. Then she mentally shook her head in disbelief. She could care less.

Suddenly Thalia seemed to notice the coffee stain on Percy's shirt, a mischievous look on her face. "Hey Kelp Head, what happened to your shirt? Can't help drooling when you're around Annabeth, can you?"

Percy blushed lightly."Psht, no, this was actually a result of one of Annabeth's murder plots." He tried to wave it off and direct the attention away from his flushed face.

Annabeth was as red as a tomato as she tried to save herself from humiliation. Everything had gotten so awkward in a matter of seconds. "Yep, death by coffee." She attempted a smile but was pretty sure it was more of a grimace. "Obviously didn't work though, 'cause Percy's still here. And not dead. So…"

"Sure, whatever you say." Thalia smirked and promptly left, yelling back a "be ready in ten!" to Annabeth about five steps into the hallway.

Percy shut the door and jerked his head slightly towards the direction of the bedroom. "You can get ready first, if you want. I mean. Um…so you have more time…" Percy felt like a deer in headlights. He felt like he'd been supernaturally teleported to some unknown world that no one had ever treaded before. Was he supposed to act normal, like Thalia hadn't suggested five minutes ago that he might have feelings for Annabeth? Was he supposed to address Annabeth and confess to her how he really felt? Except, he didn't know. They were just good friends. Nothing like…_that_. Well, sometimes he did have these strange urges around her, but they were really sporadic and varied. Like sometimes, he'd want to strangle her, and then others, he'd want to brush back those stupid stray curls that were always in her face.

Like, seriously, those curls were the worst thing ever. And not even because they were ugly. At first, Percy had been sure he'd thought that those princess curls were fake, created by a magic wand (or at least, that's what Percy thought those things girls used to curl their hair looked like). But after living with Annabeth for a few weeks, it had become clear to him that her hair was all natural. And he'd suddenly found he had a strange obsession with her hair. It always cascaded perfectly down her shoulders, and when she'd put her hair up, some curls would manage to fall out and frame her face in this way that annoyed him to no end. He wanted to tug on those curls, or at least get them out of her face.

And the worst part was, he couldn't understand why.

It was like she didn't even have to try to be beautiful.

Percy could not believe his thoughts. He decided to change his mind. It totally was not Annabeth who was beautiful. It was just the hair, he tried to convince himself. Just the hair. Obviously.

Annabeth could not stand the awkwardness. Percy was—oddly—not speaking, and the silence was causing her mind to stress. It was a gigantic elephant in the room, and it was crushing everything normal between her and Percy. She _had_ to do something about it, she had to revive the sarcastic banter they shared and eliminate this annoying barrier that had suddenly plopped down from the sky, right in between them. So she said the first somewhat witty thing she could think of.

"Are you saying that I take longer to get dressed? That's sexist." She mentally patted herself on the back with that one. Truly a job well done.

Percy snapped out of his weird reverie. "Fine, then _I'll_ go first. I'll try not to use _all_ the hot water."

Never mind, Annabeth thought. Not a job well done. She still wanted to get ready first. "Actually, I think _I _should still go first. I was just conveying to you that not all women take hours upon hours in the bathroom getting dressed, since your own ignorant brain couldn't comprehend it by itself."

"Well, maybe, I was just trying to be nice. I take back my original offer, now though, since apparently being chivalrous is sexist. I'll happily go first."

"No, really, it's fine, I'll go. You should just relax," Annabeth said as pleasantly as she could.

"Nice try, but no thanks." They both stared each other down, until finally, he threw in a new challenge. "Whoever gets there first."

They both high tailed it to the bedroom, scrambling around frantically, locating all their clothes. Annabeth was sure she would win when Percy zoomed past her towards the bathroom. No way was she going to lose though, so she followed suit and chased after him. They both reached the doorway at the exact same time and pushed each other, before both of them squeezed in.

"HAHA! I WON!" Percy yelled triumphantly, since his body entered through the doorway successfully first.

Annabeth shook her head, not accepting defeat. "No way. You cheated and shoved me, therefore I deserve the bathroom first."

They argued back and forth until Percy suddenly started pulling off his tee shirt.

"What the heck, Percy?" Annabeth asked, miffed. She couldn't help but glance at his stomach to find those abs she's punched yesterday. Oh god. They _were_ real. Not that she cared in the slightest. She attempted to fix her eyes back onto his face, trying to hide the blush she felt crawling up her neck.

Percy started to answer. "I won fair and square Annabeth-"

Was she breathing normally? She hoped so. But her unusual thoughts left her mind when she saw Percy's chest. The skin was red and angry, swelled up from the coffee burn.

"Oh my god, Percy." Annabeth said suddenly with a voice full of concern.

Percy, of course, oblivious to the apparent seriousness of the situation, replied with an intelligent. "What?"

She walked closer to him and placed a hand on his chest. It hurt him a little, but Percy's eyes still widened visibly in confusion. What was going on? Also, he really wanted his heart to stop beating so fast. He hoped Annabeth couldn't feel it. Not that his heart was beating _that _fast. Maybe.

It didn't seem to matter, though, since Annabeth seemed to be lost in her own world, not completely aware of her actions. She was thoroughly inspecting his chest, running her hand along his skin and only when Percy decided to look down did he realize why she was freaking out. His skin had burned a bit from the coffee this morning.

"Annabeth, it's no big deal. It was an accident, anyway. It looks worse than it actually feels." He smiled encouragingly. The last thing he needed was more awkwardness between them.

She looked up at him; hand still on his chest, her grey eyes a storm. "You need ice." She ran to the kitchen, and in five seconds flat was back with an ice pack. She reached out to place it on his chest, where her hands were just before, but she seemed to catch herself this time. Then she held it out to him, with a timid, "Here, take it."

Percy put the ice on his chest, watching Annabeth closely. His eyebrows scrunched together. "Annabeth, really, it's nothing. It's not your fault." He hated the look on her face. Her eyes were so clouded and she'd clenched her fists, clearly angry at herself. He didn't like it at all. He wanted her to smile and roll her eyes. That Annabeth was a lot easier to be around. "It's just karma since I dropped that suitcase on your head."

Annabeth locked her gray eyes on his. "It's not a joke, Percy." But he saw the corner of her mouth turn upwards. "I'm so horrible."

Percy gave her a lopsided grin. "We already discussed this ages ago. Let's just come to terms with the fact that you are indeed, horrible, and that you need to see a therapist."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm really starting to reconsider feeling bad for what I did." She looked at his chest again briefly. "Nope, actually I still feel bad about it."

"Oh, come off it, Annabeth. It'll be gone before you know it." He changed the subject. "I guess you win, you get to get ready first now. I'm just going to go to the kitchen and keep this ice on a little longer." He left the bathroom.

Annabeth could not _believe _him. If Percy had burned her, she probably would have declared war and shaved his head while he was sleeping or something. Well, not to that extreme, but she still would have made a big fuss about it.

Percy—freaking—Jackson was way too quick to forgive. And she hated him for that. It wasn't fair to the rest of the world for him to be so kind and trusting. She hated that he was instinctively nice and cared more about the wellbeing of others rather than his own wellbeing. Annabeth hated stupid Percy Jackson and his loyalty. It made her feel like a sick human being. Even though she was above average in the intelligence department, she was nowhere near as benevolent as Percy. Damn Percy Jackson.

Line Break

"Annie, what's gotten into you?" Thalia asked, frustrated with Annabeth's refusal to contribute to the conversation unless absolutely necessary. Thalia could practically envision all the gears and clockwork that was working in her brain as she deeply contemplated _something_.

Almost out of habit, she muttered a "don't call me 'Annie'" before returning back into her trance.

Thalia looked to Luke for help, but he simply shrugged. Plus, he found her thinking face kind of cute, so he didn't really mind.

Out of the blue, Thalia's electric blue eyes lit up with an idea. "Hey, Annabeth, got any history on Central Park?"

After hanging out with Annabeth for a while, Thalia had discerned Annabeth's weakness, which was basically, anything that involved history, facts, theories, etc., etc. She was a nerd down to her heart, and nothing can prevent a nerd from being…well, a nerd.

Annabeth's gray eyes instantly brightened. "Well, did you know that Central Park is actually the first urban landscaped park-" She basically turned into a documentary, her voice full of excitement as she spewed facts about Central Park's history into the air around her. Thalia tuned her out and smirked, happy that Annabeth was finally herself again, while Luke tried his best to pay attention, in an effort to impress her.

After she finished her detailed speech _Central Park: A History_, Thalia had some family emergency and had to leave with her brother Jason, who'd come to pick her up, leaving Annabeth and Luke alone. They walked leisurely around Central Park talking about their classes, friends, and laughing over embarrassing stories.

Luke was very considerate yet surprisingly witty and slightly reckless—at least, that's what Annabeth got from most of his high school stories. He didn't seem affected in the slightest by the sudden disappearance of Thalia (basically the _life_ of their trio, since both Annabeth and Luke were more reserved than her), and they hit it off, like old friends. Even though, in reality, they were before only merely acquaintances.

Still, Annabeth found it nice to just let loose and meet someone new. Luke was nice to be around, he knew how to make her smile and laugh, but also knew when it was time to be serious. She needed this. She needed to just talk with someone about nothing and everything, to get her mind off…things.

Okay, fine, to get her mind off Percy.

They were having so much fun and then, time flew and the next thing she knew the night was ending and Luke and Annabeth were walking to Luke's car.

Luke suddenly stopped. Annabeth hesitated before stopping as well. They were right under a lamppost, so Annabeth could catch sight of Luke's scar over his eye. He smirked at her playfully. "So…" he started, purposefully, not ending the sentence.

"So…?" Annabeth inquired. She had no idea where he was going with this conversation.

"So, are you free tomorrow night?" he asked, still being very mysterious.

"I believe so," she answered, a hint of suspicion in her voice.

"Great. There's this new Italian restaurant that everyone's been raving about, right by the NU, and I was wondering if you'd join me in confirming whether the raving can be justified?"

Annabeth blinked. Did Luke just, ask her out on a date? It seemed so.

"So…is that a yes or a no?" he asked, some of the confidence leaving his voice.

Why couldn't she just say yes? What was holding her back? Here she was, being asked out by such a great person like Luke and she was struggling to say yes. What had gotten into her? She shook her head as if that could clear her mind.

"A no?" Luke said, slightly defeated when he saw the head shaking.

"No, I mean yes. Sorry. Yes." She finally said with firmness. "Sounds like fun."

Luke beamed. "Great. I'll pick you up at seven tomorrow then."

"Okay." Annabeth gave him a small smile. Why was smiling at him so hard all of a sudden?

The ride back home was in comfortable silence. Luke wished Annabeth goodnight and gave her a hug before she headed to her dorm, which should have left her feeling bubbly and light, but just felt more like a goodnight and a hug. Nothing special. It was all so bizarre.

Annabeth shrugged it off. Maybe it was her nerves. She had never actually kissed anyone; she'd always been above all those other high school girls who chased after boys all the time. She'd never really been on a date either. Maybe it was that fact that was bothering her. That made sense. She was just a little on edge because of the whole 'trying new things' thing.

Yes. Annabeth was going to go on a date tomorrow. With Luke. And she was happy about it.

At least, that's what she told herself.

**A/N: Bet you weren't expecting **_**that**_** to happen. To be fair, I wasn't either, hehehe. But that's the cool thing about writing. You start something, but you can never be 100% sure how it's going to end. Or at least, that's how it works for me. Hope you liked! Also, you know how I said there was a spider on my wall last chapter? Well, it disappeared, but then overnight I got a spider bite…so it's out to get me! Also, thanks so much for all the follows, favorites, and reviews! THEY MAKE MY DAY! Bye loves!**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: And we're back! To my wonderful reviewers, favoriters, and followers, thank you! Much love is being sent your way. On with the story then.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians**

Roommates – 10

Annabeth would be lying if she said she wasn't nervous. Ever since Luke had asked her out the night before, she'd been on edge, finding herself chewing her lip and pacing more often than not. She'd waken up this morning to find Percy was still fast asleep and didn't have it in her heart to wake him up. Plus, she needed some time to comprehend and come to terms with the fact that she was _actually_ going on a date. With Luke. To a fancy restaurant. Keeping in mind that she'd never really been on a date. With anyone. To anywhere.

It was frightening. Luke had probably had tons of dating experience, he'd probably caught the eye of many girls, maybe he'd even broken a few hearts in the process, whereas Annabeth had nothing to say for in that department. Sure, she'd flirted some here and there, but it was never anything serious. And sure, she'd seen and appreciated attractive people, but she'd never acted on the attraction, knowing it would end sooner or later. It wasn't like people hadn't complimented her looks, or asked her to grab a coffee with them, they had, but Annabeth always declined. She'd never cared much for romance or love. Ever since her mother had left her and her father, she'd lost all faith in it. Since then, she'd never had much interest to find someone and settle down.

Luke would see straight through her. He'd see that she had no experience, and then laugh at her and drop her. He'd lose interest in a matter of minutes. Luke was just too exciting, too reckless, too interesting. Annabeth could just feel that he'd get bored of Annabeth and her weird quirks and obsessions with all things architecture and history. Suddenly she'd wished she was more daring, the type of person who caught the attention of everyone the second they stepped into the room.

Her phone started to vibrate and found that Luke was calling her. She picked up immediately with a nervous "Hello?"

"Hey Annabeth. I just wanted to let you know that we have to go a little earlier because there are no reservations for the restaurant today past 1:00. Can you be ready by 12?"

Annabeth glanced at the time. 9:07. "Yeah, that's fine. See you at 12 then."

"Okay. Bye." He hung up.

Annabeth felt her anxiety spike up more. Reservations? Did that mean this place was expensive? How much money would she need to bring?

She continued pacing almost feverishly. How could she possibly have gone along with his offer? She was going to make a complete fool of herself. She should just call him now and tell him she was too busy with a project or something.

"You're going to make holes in the ground from all your pacing," Percy said from above her in his bunk. His voice was low and he blinked slowly, still slightly asleep. Annabeth looked up at him, his hair swept every which way and his face so peaceful. She felt a strange sense of calm. Percy smiled dopily at her and sat up, not before bumping his head on the ceiling. "Ow." He murmured, before rubbing his head and messing up his hair even more than before.

Annabeth couldn't help it. She smiled softly at Percy's trademark clumsiness. At first she'd found it plain annoying, but as they'd gotten to be closer friends, she'd started to find it oddly endearing. She'd never thought she would ever be so fond of someone so unlike her in her life.

"So, what's got you so stressed out?" he asked, his legs now dangling over the bunk.

She looked up at him, shaking her head. "I'm not stressed out."

He laughed. "Yeah, right. You're pacing _and _biting your lips. In the book of Annabeth, those are symptoms of being _very_ stressed."

"The book of Annabeth?" she asked, instead of answering the initial question. Also, what business did _he_ have observing her lips? She mentally whacked herself. Why was she having these thoughts?

Percy smiled wider. "Written by yours truly. I basically know everything about Annabeth. I'm practically an expert."

She swatted a hand at his foot. "You know nothing about me."

"Is that a challenge?" Percy's sea-green eyes glistened with mischievousness.

"No. Now leave me alone, you oaf." She excused herself into the kitchen to ponder more about her date.

What were you supposed to wear to these kinds of outings? Would it be okay for her to just wear jeans and a shirt or was it something that required a dress? What if she dressed up super fancy and then it turned out Luke was going for casual?

What she really needed was to talk to an expert, but she knew of no one. Maybe Thalia would know a thing or two? She settled on that and set out to Thalia's room, which was conveniently next door. She knocked on the door and waited patiently.

The door flew open to reveal Thalia. "Oh thank gods, you're here. Save me!"

Annabeth raised her eyebrows. "What? Why?"

"Hey Thalia, you coming or should we watch without you?" a boy's voice asked from within the room.

"No, you guys go on," she called back before looking back at Annabeth. She pointed into the living room. "Beckendorf invited his girlfriend, Silena, over and now they're trying to make me watch _The Notebook _with them," she made a face of disgust. "Gods, I hate romance movies." Her electric blue eyes glowed. "So, why are you here?"

Annabeth ignored Thalia's blunt tone, feeling anxious by the second. "Oh, well…see, um…"

Thalia looked amused. "Annie's stuttering? I need to get this on video."

Annabeth shoved her lightly. "Not funny. And don't call me Annie."

Thalia rolled her eyes. "So what's up?"

Annabeth took a deep breath and looked at Thalia intently. "I have a date and I need your help to get ready for it."

At this, Thalia's eyes widened in mild curiosity. "Let me guess, you finally fell for my idiot of a cousin, right? I don't blame you, I mean Percy is a pretty nice guy once you get to know-"

"What?! No! It's not with Percy, it's with Luke," Annabeth corrected.

"Really? Wow. I knew he liked you, but I didn't know he liked you _that_ much." Thalia said, surprise evident in her voice. Then she nodded her head. "Okay, but why are you asking me? I hardly date, and when I do it's always going to loud, wild rock concerts."

"Who else _could_ I ask? " Annabeth asked, getting frustrated.

"Uhmmm…" Thalia thought for a moment. Then her eyes lit up with an idea. "Oh gods, duh. I can't believe I didn't think of her earlier. Come on." She pulled her into her room.

Annabeth followed behind Thalia until her eyes fell upon the couple seated cozily on the couch. The girl, Silena, was breathtakingly beautiful, with stark blue eyes and dark hair. Her eyes were fixated on Ryan Gosling, who was climbing up a Ferris wheel. Beckendorf, right next to her, wasn't so much watching the movie as he was trying-to-covertly-but-not covertly-at-all watching Silena. Annabeth felt like she was invading, and tugged on Thalia's arm so they could leave.

But Thalia made herself right at home, grabbing the remote and pausing the movie. Silena stood up, hands on her hips. "Oh, come on, Thalia. This is like the fifth time since we've started the movie. Can't you just let me ogle Ryan Gosling in peace?" At this, Beckendorf looked mildly offended. Silena patted his arm. "Oh Charlie, you know I love you more." She smiled lovingly at him.

Thalia gagged. "Sorry, Sil, but we need your help."

She looked at Thalia and Annabeth with suspicion. "With what?"

Thalia pointed at Annabeth. "Annabeth has a date with Luke," she said, as if that explained everything.

At least, to Silena, those words _did_ explain everything. Her whole being radiated with excitement. "Really? Oh my gosh, we need to get you ready!" She gave Beckendorf an apologetic look. "Sorry, Charlie, maybe we could finish tomorrow?" He nodded begrudgingly, before getting up to leave.

She smiled even wider and gave him a hug. "Thanks so much Charlie!"

Thalia was still gagging in the corner as Silena grabbed Annabeth and Thalia's arms. "This is going to be so much fun!" she softly squealed. "I'll be right back with my things." She rushed out of the room, a spring in her step.

Thalia crossed her arms and looked at Annabeth, satisfied immensely with herself and her idea. "Silena's basically an expert on all things romantic. When she's done with you, you'll definitely be ready for your date."

Silena burst back into the room, one hand clutching a makeup bag, and the other holding an armful of dresses. She sat Annabeth down in a chair and organized all the items out on a table. "Okay, first, we need to pick a dress. I've brought all the ones that match your skin tone and should also bring out your eyes." She dragged Annabeth over to the table. "So, which one do you like?"

Annabeth eyed the dresses cautiously before deciding on a casual grey sweater dress, with a small black belt and pockets. It was knee length and very modest, which Annabeth greatly appreciated. Annabeth was never one for daring spontaneity or bold fashion statements. She was much more demure, not necessarily to the point of being shy, but not necessarily to the point of being outgoing either.

Silena nodded in approval. "Good choice. That one really accentuates your eyes." She stood back and looked Annabeth over. "Do you have any boots? They'd go great with this outfit."

"Yeah, I've got these brown ones with laces," she suggested.

Silena smiled. "Brown combats? Perfect."

Annabeth was slightly confused and had no idea what Silena meant by 'brown combats,' but she learned to just go with it.

"Now for the hair…" Silena started. "I'm thinking a messy fishtail plait," she gestured to a chair in Thalia's bedroom, in front of a mirror. Then, with the care of an artist, she weaved Annabeth's hair into a hairstyle that looked careless yet neat at the same time. Annabeth was in a mild state of awe. The most she ever did with her hair was throw it up haphazardly into a ponytail or a bun.

As Silena opened up her makeup kit, Annabeth put out a hand to stop her. "Not too much, okay? Just some mascara and gloss should be fine."

Silena was somewhat disappointed, but did as told. "There," she said in triumph. "You're ready."

Annabeth observed herself more closely in the mirror and found the look to be perfect. It was casual, but could also be on the verge of formal. "Thanks, Silena."

Silena shrugged to convey that it was nothing big. "No problem," she smiled. "Now if only I could do Thalia's hair…"

Thalia immediately backed away. "You are not touching my hair. Ever."

Silena just shrugged again. "One of these days…"

Thalia rolled her eyes and ushered her out of the room. "Thanks, Silena, but you should get going now. Buh-bye."

Silena turned around to wish Annabeth good luck before going on her way.

Annabeth sighed before checking the time on a nearby clock. 11:32. How had the time flown so fast? She said a quick farewell to Thalia before going back to her dorm, where Percy was leaning against the kitchen counter in only his nemo pajama bottoms, drinking blue raspberry juice.

She'd told herself that this was perfectly normal and that she had long ago gotten over the fact that Percy sleeps shirtless and then doesn't change out of his pajamas until absolutely necessary. Still, she had to silently admit that shirtless Percy was indeed, distracting. And maybe attractive. Maybe.

Percy looked over to her and his eyes widened in surprise. It wasn't that he'd never seen Annabeth dressed up—he had, especially at the beginning of the school year when all she wore was pencil skirts and blouses. But…whoa.

"Excuse me?" Annabeth asked. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Percy wanted to bang his head on the counter. He must've said that last part out loud. Why was he such a doofus? He tried to recover himself, only to epically fail.

"Uhm…whoa as in…whoa you look different!" She frowned at that so he tried again. "In a good way."

Her ears turned a light shade of pink. "Uh, thanks, I guess."

"Uh. No problem." Percy was really starting to hate himself and his stupid ability to make any situation as awkward as humanly possible. Why couldn't he have the power to talk to undersea animals? Or the ability to control water? That would be so much more useful. "So…anyway, why are you so dressed up, like, more than usual?"

She tugged at her dress, even though there were no wrinkles in it. "I have a lunch date with Luke." She was having a hard time looking at Percy, so she decided to distract herself with the task of finding and putting on her brown boots.

She sat down on the couch and started lacing one up, missing Percy's stunned expression. "Oh," he said, hoping his voice didn't sound as hurt as he felt. He didn't understand why he was feeling like he had just been punched in the stomach. "Oh." Great. Now his vocabulary had diminished into a word of only one syllable.

"Yeah," Annabeth agreed lamely, lacing up the other boot.

"So, where are you going?"

Annabeth looked up at him, her expression saying 'why do you need to know?' but she answered him anyway. "That new Italian restaurant nearby."

"Oh. When?"

"We have reservations for one o' clock."

"Oh. Okay."

"Yeah."

Percy wanted to pull his hair out at this point. When did their conversations get so pathetic?

"So…Luke, huh?" he asked. "Didn't know you liked him like that."

Annabeth locked her grey eyes onto his green ones. "Maybe I do. So what?"

Percy shrugged. "Nothing. I just have never really seen you two hanging out together without Thalia that much. It's just kind of weird."

Annabeth felt herself getting strangely defensive. "How so?"

"Well, I don't know. I mean…it's just weird is all." Percy mentally slapped himself. He'd never been good at explaining things, but this was downright horrible.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "God, Percy. Sometimes I just don't get you. You make no sense whatsoever. If you want to say something, just say it. Otherwise, I could care less." She felt herself getting increasingly frustrated by the second. "Sometimes you can be so stupid. And why do you have to know about everything that's going on in my life, huh? It's not like we're best friends or something, okay? We're not. We're just roommates. By some unfathomable chance, we got stuck in the same room together for a whole school year. That's it."

She walked right up to him, her face inches from his, breathing heavily. Her arms went out on either side of the counter, surrounding him so he couldn't move. She couldn't really tell where her anger was coming from, but she needed to let it out. "Most of the time I just want to strangle you. You're just _that_ annoying with your stupid brain and your pitiful clumsiness. Why should you care about who I'm dating and where I'm going and if you think it's weird, so what? You don't control me and you mean nothing to me, so stop trying to put yourself in my life and think you know everything about me! Because you don't! You know nothing about me and you have no right to make any decisions for me! Sometimes I really hate you."

Percy's sea-green eyes shown with hurt. His voice was soft, almost down to a whisper. "I'm sorry, Annabeth. I didn't know that's how you felt. I'll just leave you alone from now on." He moved one of her arms that was keeping him between her and the counter and walked off to the bedroom, slowly shutting the door behind him.

Annabeth suddenly felt a wave of guilt wash over her. But she was in no way going to apologize, especially if most of what she said was true. That would hurt her pride to no end.

A knock sounded at the door and there was a split-second in which Annabeth almost ignored it to go check on Percy. Then her pride won again and she went to answer the door. It was Luke, smiling, a dozen roses in his hand, dressed neatly in a pale blue dress shirt and some jeans.

"Hey." He smiled at her. "You look beautiful," he said smoothly.

Annabeth couldn't help but blush, taking the roses. "You clean up pretty well, yourself. Let me just put these in a vase and I'll join you."

She busied herself with clipping the roses and filling the vase with water, trying to feel more excited about the date and not concerned about Percy. She needed to get the image of sad (shirtless) Percy out of her head. It was going to ruin her.

She plastered a smile on her face and joined Luke. They walked out to his car and still all Annabeth could think about was Percy's sad ocean eyes.

Line Break

Percy had showered and changed into some jeans and a shirt. Currently he was sprawled out on the couch, feeling particularly mopey and channel surfing, not really knowing what he was looking for.

Nico, his friend who was currently a junior at Goode High School, sat on one of the barstools in the kitchen, looking more than irritated. He'd come by to catch up with Percy, but all he'd gotten was a lame 'hello' and an invitation to sit down before Percy had thrown himself onto the couch. Just as he'd flipped by channel 8 for the fifth time, Nico got up.

"What is up with you, Percy?" He went up to the television and switched it off.

Percy shrugged. "I don't know. Nothing."

"So how's college?" Nico asked, trying to get him to stop talking in fragments.

"Fine. Whatever."

Nico rolled his eyes in pure annoyance. "Great," he said sarcastically. "You know, usually it's the other way around. I'm the depressed guy and you're the one who tries to get me to do something about it. I can't say I like being the other guy. Being dark and moody is my thing. You need to stop."

Percy buried his face into the armrest, his voice muffled. "Yeah, okay."

"Want to play Mythomagic?" Nico hoped this would elicit at least a laugh from Percy. It had been a running joke when Nico used to play the old card game of skill and strategy, complete with figurines. Everyone used to laugh at him about it.

Instead Percy just groaned. "Sure."

Nico just looked at him. "Dude, I got rid of those cards in middle school. You and I both know that. It was just a joke."

Percy simply nodded. "You know, Annabeth would love Mythomagic. She loves strategy games."

"Who's Annabeth?" Nico asked in a confused tone.

Percy sighed. "Nobody." Nico stared him down. "Okay fine, my roommate."

Everything suddenly clicked. "Ahh, I see. So where's Annabeth?"

Percy rolled over on the couch and stared at the ceiling. "On a date at that fancy new Italian restaurant." He paused. "Not that I care. It's probably really cheesy for a first date."

Nico nodded, trying to hold back his laughter from the pun Percy had made, probably unconsciously. Italians sure loved their cheese. "Yep." He said, popping the p. "Really cheesy."

"So how is Annabeth?"

Percy shrugged. "Fine. Meh. Can we not talk about her?"

"Why ever not?" Nico asked, the mockery obvious in his voice.

Percy ignored his sarcasm. "Because she's mean. And annoying. And she has weird princess hair."

Nico smiled. "Percy's in loveeeee…." He started to sing. "Percy and Annabeth, sitting in a tree, k-i" he started.

Percy turned a bright shade of red and threw a pillow from the couch at Nico. "Stop it! I don't even _like _her!"

Nico smiled even wider. "Sure, lover boy. Whatever you say…"

"Don't call me lover boy. Annabeth isn't even my friend, okay? It's not like that."

Nico ignored Percy's protests. "Whatever floats your boat, lover boy."

Percy attempted to give Nico the stink eye. "I hate you."

"The feeling is completely mutual." Nico abruptly had an idea. "Hey, we should crash her date! I really want to meet this girl who's got you head over heels."

Percy shook his head. "What?! No! You can't just go crashing people's dates, Nico."

Nico smiled evilly. "Who said so? And plus, I thought you liked her. Do you really want her to be laughing at someone else's jokes? Although, really, your jokes suck."

Percy contemplated this. Nico grabbed his arm and pulled on his aviator jacket. "We really shouldn't," Percy protested.

"Yeah, yeah. Let's just go."

Line Break

Annabeth and Luke were situated in a booth across from each other, waiting for their orders. As she sipped her iced tea, Luke told her about his family.

"My dad left us before I was even born. And my mom, May, she was devastated. She was always sad, all the time. She had to take all these meds for her depression, and she barely had the time or strength to take care of me. I pretty much had to take care of myself for most of my life. It wasn't great. She did try to make me lunch though, once in a while. At least she _cared_. I have no idea who my dad is and I never want to meet him. I mean, how could anyone do that to me and my mom?" Luke said his voice somewhat tense.

Annabeth instantly felt empathetic towards him. She reached out to take his hand that was on the table. "I understand. I mean, my mom left us when I was pretty young too. So I kind of get it."

Luke smiled at her and she smiled back, when suddenly a boy who looked to be little younger than them approached their table. He wore an aviator jacket and his hair was a bit on the long side. "Hi. You must be Annabeth, Percy's roommate?" Annabeth felt herself grow slightly befuddled until she saw the person standing next to him.

Right next to him, was a flustered Percy. Annabeth raised an eyebrow at him in suspicion.

Percy tried to look more composed than he felt. "Uh, hey, I didn't know you guys would be here." To this Annabeth rolled her eyes. Of course he knew they would be there, she _had _told him that. The question was, why was he here?

Percy scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. The boy next to him nudged him encouragingly. "Oh right. This is Nico, my friend. He's a junior at Goode. He just came by to visit me and we decided to get something to eat. Didn't know you would be here. Nice seeing you." He made a move to leave, but Nico grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

Annabeth stared him down, trying to discern what he was really up to. She got nothing. "You do know you need reservations to be here. Right, Luke?" She looked over to him and he nodded. "Wasn't this the only available time they had for us? Weren't they otherwise already booked?" Luke nodded again.

Percy looked at Nico in irritation before glancing back at her. "Right. Well. We got an exception."

Nico nodded, trying to seem convincing. "My uncle works here."

Annabeth eyed the both of them. "Right. Well if you don't mind, you're kind of interrupting our date."

Nico nodded again. "Sorry, but Percy's told me so much about you, and I've always wanted to meet you. You guys wouldn't mind if we sat with you, right?" He looked at Luke for confirmation.

Luke sighed in defeat. "Sure."

Nico sat himself down by Luke, leaving Percy to sit by Annabeth. Percy would be lying if he said he wasn't frightened. He could tell Annabeth was already suspicious.

They talked and ate for a few hours. Annabeth heartily ignored Percy every time he even tried to talk to her though, so things got awkward pretty fast. Luckily every time that happened Luke or Nico would tell some story to get them laughing again.

Finally, they'd all pitched in and paid the bill. They left the restaurant together and Luke pulled Annabeth aside.

"I really had fun tonight," he commented.

Annabeth nodded. "Me too. I'm sorry we got interrupted not even halfway into the date."

Luke pushed a curl behind her ear. "Hey, it's okay. It was still great." He leaned in to give her a kiss on the cheek.

"Oh no! There's a giant dog running this way to attack us!" Percy suddenly yelled.

Luke turned away to look. There was nothing.

Percy looked at Luke and Annabeth sheepishly. "Sorry. False alarm. We should get going, it's getting late."

Annabeth frowned at Percy in resentment. "Percy, it's only 3 in the afternoon."

Percy nodded. "Oh. Right." An awkward silence ensued.

Nico broke it. "Hey Luke, is it okay if we get a ride with you? We took the bus here."

Luke shrugged. "Sure. No problem."

Line Break

Annabeth was angered to think that in the end, her first ever date was not nearly as romantic as she had hoped. All because of Percy.

When they'd gotten back to their dorm and Nico had left, Annabeth changed into sweats and threw herself into reading and sketching buildings for the rest of the day. Not once did she acknowledge Percy. Not once.

Percy wanted to punch Nico. In the face. With a chair. Crashing Annabeth's date had only made things between them even worse.

Honestly, why was he even doing this? She didn't like him. At all. She'd told him earlier that day.

And it wasn't like he liked her either. Nope. He could never like Annabeth like _that_.

But still, he liked teasing her. And he liked when she made fun of him. And he kind of grew fond of the way her eyes shined whenever she talked about architecture. And she was kind of pretty too. He just wanted her to talk to him at least. He hated it when she was mad at him.

He liked to think that they were at least friends. He looked over at her, sitting at the desk, carefully drawing something that resembled the Empire State Building. Her hair was in a loose bun and some of it cascaded around her face. She chewed on the edge of her pencil as she examined the sketch.

"Hey, Annabeth?" he tried for the umpteenth time.

No response. The silent treatment was killing him.

A lightbulb lit in his head. He walked over to her. "Are you ticklish?"

She said nothing.

Percy started to tickle her and she fell off her chair. "Oh my god, Percy, stop it!" she started to giggle uncontrollably. "This is so unfair!" she screamed in between laughter. "I am supposed to be mad at you!"

"Aw, come on, you know you don't like being mad at me," Percy said, smiling. Yes! He'd gotten her. He tickled her neck and she burst into even louder laughter.

"This is abuse! Stop it right now or I will murder you!"

"You can't murder me if you die from laughter!"

She tackled him onto the ground and looked hard into his eyes. Suddenly the air had gotten serious. "Why did you come into the restaurant? You know I was excited about this date, Percy. So why?"

Her grey eyes were somewhat sad, and Percy felt horrible for the way he'd acted. He hated when Annabeth was sad. It just made him sad. He looked at her and said honestly, "I don't know."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Why is it that I can't stay mad at you?"

Percy smiled jokingly. "Maybe it's 'cause you're deeply, irrevocably, in love with me."

She shoved him playfully. "Yeah, right. Now leave me alone, you dunce." She got back up and sat down in her chair, resuming her work on her sketch of the Empire State Building.

In love with Percy? Yeah, _right._

**A/N: YASS! Another chapter done! Why is PERCABETH SO CUTE. Honestly?! Hope you guys liked it as much as I liked writing it! (A lot!) Hope y'all have a great day! Thanks for the continued support! Bye loves!**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Hi friends! I'm back again. Just thought you should know…in case you wanted to read more…well too bad because this chapter is actually…right below! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own 'Percy Jackson.' Or 'and the Olympians.' **

Roommates — 11

It was December in New York. The streets were colder than before, the winds more persistent. People still milled around, some with purpose, some aimlessly, but all with jackets. Truth be told, New York hardly changed no matter how much the weather did. New York would always be loud and exciting, whether it was sweltering hot or freezing cold. Any native would agree that the only lullaby that could be heard at night was the sound of traffic and occasional blaring music. There was no night and day, there was simply the present. That was probably why it was so enticing to people, because it gave the promise of excitement, no matter the time.

There was a light covering of snow outside, like a fresh blanket—well, where it hadn't been run over by cars and taxis. That part was sludgy and black. But that didn't seem to dim the mood of the children that had dedicated themselves to building snowmen and making snow angels. A hint of hot chocolate wafted through the air, and the bakeries seemed to glow more, enchanting customers in. More people treated themselves to fresh pastries before they headed off to work. There was a calming sense of warmth and peace that seemed to envelope New York, something that had sneaked in with the snow.

All the stores had strewn themselves in decorative white lights, their shop windows displaying fuzzy hats and fuzzy scarves. Pines and Douglass Firs were at every corner, adorned with ornaments of every size, shape, and color. Bells tinkled as doors were opened and closed, and the sound of laughter and merriment amplified as the days progressed. Christmas was in the air.

Percy and Annabeth were in their dorm, relaxing. Their winter break was up and coming and all the students at NU reflected excitement. Students all over the campus chattered about their plans of going home for the holidays and spending it with their families. The smell of apple cider, pumpkin-spice lattes, and hot chocolate was everywhere, especially since the nearby Starbucks was giving a special student discount for the whole month of December.

"You know what's funny?" Percy asked out of the blue.

"I know what's not funny. You," Annabeth replied nonchalantly. She was immersed in another one of her architecture books she'd managed to pick up from the library. It had detailed illustrations of Greek architecture almost every other page and Annabeth couldn't help but mentally build each building in her mind. She admired the phenomenal handiwork of the Greeks in constructing temples that had lasted thousands of years.

"Hardy har har. Now are you going to listen to my hilarious discovery or what?"

"Do I have a choice?"

Percy paused for dramatic effect.

"Taco cat spelled backwards is taco cat."

Percy laughed proudly and looked to Annabeth for her response. She hadn't even lifted her eyes up from the book.

Twenty silent seconds passed by.

"What even is a 'taco cat?' That makes no sense whatsoever," Annabeth finally replied, undoubtedly unimpressed.

Percy, ignoring her sarcasm, answered her. "I'm pretty sure it's a cat wearing a taco costume. Or maybe it's like a hot dog. But it's a taco. Cat."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. Percy rolled his eyes back at her as a form of mockery. "You're just jealous because you're not even close to half as funny as me. Although, who can blame you? You can't help it if you're a total nerd."

Annabeth shut her book and looked at Percy amusedly. "Being a nerd does not affect my sense of humor in the slightest. I am perfectly adequate at cracking jokes and laughing at them. But not even a five year old would laugh at _your_ jokes." She snorted. "And by the way, there are so many _actual_ words that are the same spelled frontwards and backwards, the correct term for them being 'palindromes.' There's aibohphobia, racecar, tenet, murdrum…"

Percy reached out and put his hand over her mouth to silence her. "Nerd. The only word from that list that I've even heard of is racecar." He raised an eyebrow. "What's a murdrum? A type of drum that makes the sound 'mur' every time you whack it?"

Annabeth shoved his hand off of her mouth. "Murdrum. Noun." She bore her eyes into his as a corner of her mouth lilted upwards. "It means murder. Or more specifically killing someone in secret."

Percy tried to hide his gulp. "Interesting."

Annabeth smiled wider, mirth in her grey eyes. "Yeah. It's a nice word."

Percy nodded his head quickly in agreement. Under his breath he muttered, "Because words about murder are considered to be 'nice.' _Right._"

Annabeth leaned over and flicked Percy in the ear. "I heard that."

To this, Percy shrugged. "Just stating the obvious."

The cord phone on the wall started to ring, interrupting their directionless conversation.

Annabeth, being the responsible one, got up and answered it. "Hello?"

She was met with the cordial voice of Sally Jackson. "Oh, hello Annabeth. How are you?"

Annabeth couldn't help the smile. Sally just had that effect on people. "I'm great Sally. Thanks. And how are things over there?"

Percy's eyes widened slightly when he heard his mother's name. He walked over to Annabeth and pointed at the phone, eager to talk to his mother. Annabeth held up her hand as she listened to Sally's response. Sally told Annabeth about how Paul and she had gotten to the halfway mark of her new book, how they had already bought a Christmas tree, and how she'd gone out and purchased more blue food dye for when Percy would come home for the holidays. All the while, Annabeth listened with a happy smile, nodding along even though Sally couldn't see her.

"How's Percy?" she asked warmly.

Percy nudged Annabeth and tugged at the phone, a small pout on his face. Annabeth held her ground, keeping the phone pressed against her ear as she replied, "He's right next to me, begging on his knees to talk to you. I'll give it to him." She passed Percy the phone finally, not before catching Sally's laugh from the other line.

"Hey mom." Percy visibly brightened as he talked to his mom.

Annabeth moved herself back onto the couch and picked up her book. She didn't want to invade on their privacy, no matter how cute Percy looked when he talked to his mom. As hard as she tried, she couldn't help but find it sweet when his eyes got all childlike with enthusiasm.

She knew her dad loved her, but there was some part of her that yearned for more whenever she saw Percy laugh with his mom on the phone. Percy was best friends with Sally. Annabeth envied that. She wished her parents were as loving as Sally, she wished her parents were her best friends; people she could share anything freely with. Looking at Percy, she found herself wishing for impossible sentiments like that. She wanted to love someone so much that the sound of their name brought a smile upon her face. She wanted someone to love _her_ so much that the sound of _her_ name brought a smile upon their face.

Annabeth had never been one to crave attention, unless it was coming from her mother. Otherwise, she could care less about who noticed her. It was a strange feeling on her to suddenly want to be loved so unconditionally, kind of like an itchy sweater. Being trapped in a room with Percy was doing weird things to her. It was like Percy was a new, possibly unapproved medicine with the side effects of wanting unachievable things and maybe a little brain cell loss.

She snapped out of her thoughts at the sound of Percy's unexpectedly flustered voice. Percy glanced at her nervously before listening again to his mother's voice on the phone, occasionally throwing in his own frazzled responses.

"She probably already has plans, mom. No mom, I'm being serious. Look, I'm pretty sure she wouldn't want to come anyways. Mom! No, of course _I'm _okay with it, but she-she might not-what? What do you mean I'm lying?! I'm not lying! I'm just saying that-okay fine, I'll ask her."

Annabeth found herself eavesdropping now. She couldn't help it. She was trying to figure out what, or more specifically, _who_ was getting Percy so stressed out. Suddenly she thought of red-haired Rachel, who'd dropped by a few more times in the last week. She had a hard time getting along with the girl, even though she seemed cool. She still couldn't piece together why she felt a tad angry whenever she tousled Percy's hair or laughed at his dorkiness, but it was almost like she couldn't control it.

Percy continued nervously. "She'll probably say no anyway. That's all I'm saying. Okay, okay, I will. Yeah, yeah. I know. And no, I will not chicken out. Stop pressuring me. Okay. Fine. I'll ask her right now. Just wait a minute." He placed the phone down at the counter and observed Annabeth.

Annabeth gave him a curious look, feeling her nose scrunch up at his bewildered expression.

"My mom was wondering if you'd like to come over for dinner sometime during the holidays," he eventually uttered after a period of anxious silence. He shrugged his shoulders as if to say 'mothers, what can you do?' "I get it if you can't, I mean, it is the holidays, it's not like you don't have plans-" he started to ramble anxiously.

Annabeth interrupted him. "Actually, I don't have any plans. My dad and stepmother are taking my twin-brothers on some Disney cruise to Alaska." At Percy's astonished expression, she explained. "They offered for me to tag along, but I declined. I would just feel like a third wheel, anyways. It is a _Disney_ cruise after all."

Percy just nodded before blurting "I can't believe you skipped out on a _Disney_ cruise. I've wanted to go on one since, like, forever! I would've gone in a heartbeat."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Not everyone is such a child like you, Percy."

Percy puts the phone back up to his ear and before he can even tell her about Annabeth's acceptance of Sally's offer, Percy thrusts the phone towards Annabeth. "She wants to talk to you for some reason."

Annabeth got up and took the phone from him. "Yes?" she asked.

"Oh, Annabeth, I just couldn't help but listen to your conversation with Percy." Annabeth sucked in a breath. Maybe Sally now thought she was really rude and would tell her to get off her high horse and behave or something. She felt herself start to panic before Sally spoke again. "You really shouldn't be all alone for Christmas. There's no fun in that." Annabeth's eyebrows rose, unsure of where the conversation was going. "Why don't you come and stay with us for break? I would hate for you to be lonely during Christmas."

This surely took an unexpected turn. "Uhm…well, I would hate to intrude, and I don't know if my parents would let me. Plus, I don't want to bother all of you."

She could practically imagine Sally waving her off, and she had no clue what Sally even looked like. "Oh, no, it's completely fine. I'm sure Percy will be okay with it, and Paul and I would love the company. The more the merrier! As for your parents, I'll see what I can do. I think I have your house phone number, from that roommate emergency info sheet. You just pack up your things and come over, okay? It'll be fun, I promise."

Annabeth snuck a short glance at Percy, who was currently unaware of this alteration to his previously planned winter break. "Are you sure Percy won't mind?" she asked, Sally, still feeling a bit unsure herself. Did she really want to spend three more weeks, _on her break_, with Percy?

Sally laughed lightly. "Oh, don't you worry, Percy won't mind in the slightest. Now, I've gotta go, but you tell Percy that I love him and I'll see you both in a few days, okay? Bye!" the phone clicked off.

Annabeth put the phone down, her mind still swirling. What had just happened in the last few minutes? Had she really just agreed to spend the holidays _with Percy,_ in _Percy's house_? What was going on?

Percy eyed her suspiciously. "What'd she say?" He paused, and fear seeped into his eyes. "Did she tell you about Ariel?! Because if she did, it's not true!"

Annabeth still couldn't come to terms with the fact that she had just agreed to spend even more time with Percy. "She sends her love and says she'll see us both in a few days." Then she processed what Percy had said. "Wait, what about Ariel?"

Percy breathed a sigh of relief before getting on his defensive. "Oh, nothing. So when are you planning to come over for dinner?" he asked, effectively changing the subject.

Annabeth took a sharp intake of breath as the weight of what she'd done finally occurred to her. "Actually, you see, the plan changed. I'm staying with you for the holidays." For some reason, she felt her cheeks dust pink and she couldn't meet his eyes.

Percy took a moment before he seemed to understand. "Oh."

Annabeth nodded. "Yeah." For some unexplainable reason, she felt embarrassed. She didn't want Percy to feel like his break was ruined because of her, which is what she was inferring now. He wasn't exactly jumping for joy or anything. It made her uneasy. "Sorry, I probably messed up all your holiday plans."

Percy gave her a reassuring smile. "Are you kidding? It'll be fun! I'll show you how to have a proper Christmas! And you can suffer with me through Sally and Paul's goo-goo eyes. It's so weird. Ew."

Annabeth laughed, at ease. "It can't be _that _bad."

"Oh, no, it's disgusting," Percy deadpanned.

Annabeth pushed him playfully. "Rude."

Percy held up his hands. "I call it as I see it."

Line Break

Annabeth wanted to make a good first impression on Sally Jackson. She knew that Sally was probably the most motherly, kind, and loving person that could ever exist on the planet, but she still wanted to safely confirm that she would like her. She needed a safety net. Sally wasn't just some other lady. Her kindness, however small, had been monumental during these first few months of college. The way she exuded an aura of motherliness to anyone and everyone still managed to amaze Annabeth. Sally Jackson was a human being from a completely different universe, one who sought the best from anyone and denied them nothing they deserved.

Which was why she'd attempted to bake, when it all came down to it.

It made enough sense at the time, anyway. She could bring cookies as a thank you gift for taking her in for the holidays. Surely Sally would appreciate that; it would be a perfect first impression. Annabeth always found a strange warmth and comfort from sugar cookies. Actually, it wasn't super strange, because when Annabeth was really little and Athena hadn't been so uptight, Athena would make her sugar cookies. Annabeth would sit across from her on the kitchen counter and sneak licks off the spoon.

Washing her hands, she felt wistful thinking about how things used to be.

The ingredients were all set neatly out on the kitchen island, and she'd put on her apron. But she couldn't find it in herself to move. It took a moment for her to discover why, but then she'd remembered the last time she'd tried to bake.

It was just a few weeks before Athena had left them. Christmas eve was approaching, and Frederick and Athena did nothing but argue. She'd been overcome by this stupid idea to bake cookies to assuage their tempers. She'd never baked before, but she was desperate. Annabeth wanted to do something that would make them all be a happy family together.

Looking back, how naïve had she been to think cookies would solve everything?

Of course, her plan had gone astray from what she was aiming for. She'd been so stressed from the tense atmosphere between her parents; her dyslexia started acting up more than usual. She'd messed up the amounts on the ingredients, and then burned the cookies. They'd ended up as black, smoking mounds of dough, plastered onto the cookie sheets. Athena had yelled at her for being foolish and Frederick scolded her for using the oven without asking for assistance. The two of them went to their separate rooms angrily, leaving Annabeth to scrape off her burnt cookies into the trash by herself. It wasn't exactly a memory she wanted to relive.

She'd never baked again.

Annabeth looked at the ingredients laid out before her. She was just going to have to do it. Just because she'd failed once, she wasn't going to not try again. She could master baking, just like she could master math and quantum physics. Cooking was like chemistry after all, right? She'd nailed chemistry. At least, she'd aced the tests. She'd done mediocre on the labs. But now was no time to dwell on that.

She focused on each task, mixing the ingredients, careful to check the precise amounts of each one before she added it. She'd just finished making the dough when the door creaked open and Percy stepped in.

His eyes widened at the sight before him. "Are you…baking?" He shrugged off his jacket, and walked over to look into her bowl. "Is that…cookie dough?"

Annabeth didn't even look up as she started to knead the dough in her hands. "Yes, and?"

Percy realized that baking was normal. But he'd never ever even thought to consider Annabeth baking normal. She hated cooking, he knew for a fact. She read books and studied all the time. Baking just didn't seem very Annabeth-y. He didn't voice this though, to avoid any of her snarky comments about his ignorance and neurological dysfunction. Instead, he voiced a different concern. "It's not blue."

Her hands stopped kneading for a second. "What?"

"It's not blue."

"So?" She went back to shaping the dough.

"Cookies should always be blue. It's law."

"In your world. Not mine."

"Anything's possible."

"Things are possible. But they don't always have to be necessary."

Percy huffed. "Blue cookies are necessary. A world without blue cookies is not humane." He started digging through the kitchen drawers to find his stash of blue food dye.

"I swear, Percy Jackson, if you make my cookies blue, I will personally-"

"Thank me and praise me for being the best human being ever. Yeah, I know." He grasped a bottle of the dye and flipped the cap open, raising it over the bowl of cookie dough.

Annabeth moved him away with her shoulders. She thought she'd won their miniature battle when Percy came from behind, wrapping one arm around her waist, and placing his head dangerously close to her neck. She felt herself suck in a breath at his nearness. Her hands stopped moving, the dough sticky on her hands. If she turned her head, they'd be nose to nose, they were so close. If she turned her head, their lips would be mere inches within each other. For some reason, that was the only thing going through her mind.

Percy was having trouble breathing normally. He wasn't expecting to be so affected by the proximity. All he'd been going for was holding Annabeth back as he tipped in a few drops of blue food dye. But then, he'd caught that lemon scent from her hair. As he tipped the bottle of dye, he lost himself in that refreshing Annabeth scent, wanting to move even closer. His arm against Annabeth's waist seemed to burn now, like it was on fire, but weirdly, it was on fire in the best way.

Annabeth broke from the trance first. "Percy! You dumped the whole bottle of dye! That's way too much!" She thought of pushing him away from her, but her arms wouldn't move.

Percy immediately released his arm from her waist and stepped away. He tried to keep the flush crawling up his neck from going any further. Trying to appear nonchalant, he shrugged. "The bluer, the better."

Annabeth rolled her eyes, but mixed the blue into the dough anyway. Percy reached in and started to help her, their fingers brushing occasionally. Both tried to ignore the electric sparks that shocked their skin every time it came into contact. Annabeth blamed it on static electricity (which she knew in her mind made no sense at all whatsoever). Percy tried to ignore it failingly, his cheeks darkening each passing minute (thankfully Annabeth was too focused on squishing the dough that she didn't notice the state of his face).

As they scooped the dough onto the baking sheets, they began to return to a safe state of normalcy. Percy started licking cookie dough off his fingers and Annabeth chided him and called him barbaric and other words of that variety. Their easy banter, like an old friend, came back.

After Annabeth had put the tray in the oven and set the timer to twenty minutes, Percy had turned on the television to (an extremely early) Mickey Mouse Christmas Special. Annabeth seated herself next to him, establishing only a few inches of space between them.

Five minutes in, Annabeth fell asleep, exhausted from her busy and stressful day. Her head somehow found its way onto Percy's shoulder and she unconsciously moved closer to him. If it were Thalia or Nico or Grover, Percy would have shoved them off. But Annabeth looked to be so at peace, so calm for once. Percy didn't want to ruin that. Plus, her hair smelled really good, and her head fit so well into the crook of his neck and his shoulder. He couldn't find it in his heart to move her.

Fifteen minutes later, the timer for the cookies beeped. Percy slowly lifted Annabeth up and carefully carried her into the bedroom, putting her down on her bed and tucking her in. He didn't know what came over him in that moment, but he pushed a stray curl back from her face, before leaving to take the cookies out of the oven.

Line Break

When Annabeth woke up, she found that her cookies weren't burnt this time.

They weren't burnt, but they _were_ blue.

And maybe that made it even better.

**A/N: I have no words. Also I am sleep-deprived, but I got that burst of inspiration. So hope you enjoyed! Love is being sent your way! **


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